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

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive 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 models set by strongmen overseas.

“The government is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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