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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

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 strongmen 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 weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their claim 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 people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor 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 warned about rising 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 several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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