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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods used by rulers 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 statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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