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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power 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 heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently