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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise 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 only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

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

“They persist in 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.”

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 judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology 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 warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All 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 specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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