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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump 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 strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

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

Administration Aims

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