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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm 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 government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate 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 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts 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 comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters 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 social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate 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 social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently