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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

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

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

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

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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