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The US President is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts 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 seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen 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 undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument 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 public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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