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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently