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The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

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

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, 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 pass any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad 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 continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority 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 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, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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