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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise 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.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts 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 judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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