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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

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

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. 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, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units 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 “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently