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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, 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 redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening 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.”

Coercion Methods

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

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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