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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, 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 research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The government is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

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

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

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

Government Goals

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