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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

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

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

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

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

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

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

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 so hard to do. {Right now|Currently