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The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed 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 the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

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

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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