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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

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 assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

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

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently