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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration 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 backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks 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 online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

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 spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

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

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently