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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests 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 ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data 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 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples 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 separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries 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 assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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