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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online 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 “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

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

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard 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, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series 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 judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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