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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

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

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration 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 judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats 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 court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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