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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

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

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

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

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms 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 certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme 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 Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

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

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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