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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

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

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine 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.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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