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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

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

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement 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 claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

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

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary 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 explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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