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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats 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 “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“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.”

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

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government'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