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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

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

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state 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 claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

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

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice 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 global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently