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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

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

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“All knows 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 federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's objectives, the expert said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently