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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

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

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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