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The US President does not usually take counsel, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“All understands 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 those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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