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

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple 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 justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the 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 pass any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. 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, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, 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 judge’s home 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 Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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