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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to 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, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

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

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts 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 attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

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

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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