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The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step 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 Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure 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 democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, 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 highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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