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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, 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 pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation 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 claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation 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 GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor 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 think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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