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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders 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 assailant aiming at Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

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

Government Goals

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