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

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid online criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned 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 unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently