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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered 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 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples 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 laws that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently