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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

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

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. 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 court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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