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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

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

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening 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.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“Everyone 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 specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently