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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton'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.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a second term in the face of 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 rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

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

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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