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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from 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.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive 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 the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

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

“The administration is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently