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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is observing at these successes and failures. 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 persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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