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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, 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 highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; 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

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

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

“The administration is observing 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 persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation 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 judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently