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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

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

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

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

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around 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.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

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

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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