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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise 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 the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats 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

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 rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’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