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

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

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

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric 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 allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “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 the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“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 federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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