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The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “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.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several 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 action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

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

“The administration is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats 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 democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently