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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

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

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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