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The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently