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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

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

“The government is observing at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

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

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“All understands 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 these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently