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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists 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 detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

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

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“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 judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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