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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration is observing at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently