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The US President does not usually take advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over 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 threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing 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 public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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