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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed 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 support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests 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 blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

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

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

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

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

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

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies 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 highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently