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The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred 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 dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating 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' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts 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 Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats 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 child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges 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 leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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