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The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians 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 courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently