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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered 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 likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats 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 threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

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

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders 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 assailant aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently