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The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

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

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats 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 “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The administration is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

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

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently