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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful 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 otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president 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 judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 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 certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian 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 food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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