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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

“The administration is observing 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 instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, 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