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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is observing at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to 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: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home 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.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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