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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

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

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently