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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

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

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

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

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed 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 May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

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

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The government is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the courts,” she said.

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

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity 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, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government'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