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The US President does not usually take counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently