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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador'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 “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is observing at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently