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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 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 research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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