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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, the expert said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently