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The US President rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high 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 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

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

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to 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.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther 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 Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding 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