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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim 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 ability to make those decisions. 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.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently