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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats 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 directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

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 strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising 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 child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” 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 spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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