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The US President rarely accepts guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say 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 “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

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

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

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

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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