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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent 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.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts 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 claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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