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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“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 judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All knows 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 specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently