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The US President rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred 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 top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians 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 undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding 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 democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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