Terje Helland Profile picture
Mar 4 11 tweets 4 min read Read on X
🇺🇸🇪🇺🌎The transatlantic alliance faces an uncomfortable truth: the instability in U.S. politics isn't just about Trump. It’s about the deeper flaws in American democracy itself—flaws that make the U.S. an unreliable pillar of Western security.
🧵A security thread.
1/10 Image
Trump—a convicted fraudster, rapist, and insurrectionist—isn’t an outlier. The fact that he can win power again is a symptom of systemic weakness.
In any functioning democracy, such a figure would be politically extinct.
In the U.S., he was the GOPs first choice.
2/10
How did we get here? Its complicated but two core flaws make American democracy structurally unstable:
1️⃣ Money in politics—Citizens United allows billionaires to buy elections.
2️⃣ Electoral system design—A few swing states decide everything, making it easy to manipulate outcomes Image
Unlike in Europe (at least my country), where politicians resign over minor infractions, the U.S. system enables criminals to return to power.
When legal accountability means nothing, when money outweighs votes, when courts are stacked—how democratic is the U.S., really?
4/11Image
This isn’t just about domestic politics. If the U.S. can’t guarantee stable governance, how can Europe, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, or Japan trust it with their security?
5/11
NATO’s backbone has always been U.S. leadership. But when that leadership can swing between Biden’s internationalism and Trump’s isolationism—on a whim—the alliance itself is on borrowed time.
6/11Image
Europe must wake up. The old assumption—that the U.S. will always be there as a security guarantor—is dead.
A country that can be hijacked by extremists every four years is no foundation for defense and security.
7/11Image
The solution? The West must build an independent security framework.
✅ Europe must expand its defense capacity.
✅ Canada, Australia, Taiwan and Japan must coordinate more closely.
✅ NATO must prepare for a world where U.S. support is conditional—or absent.
8/11 Image
This is not an anti-American argument. It’s about recognizing reality. The U.S. remains a vital partner, but the era of blind dependence is over.
The West needs a backup plan—before it’s too late.
9/11 Image
The biggest threat to the Western alliance isn’t just Russia or China.
It’s the fragility of U.S. democracy itself.
If we don’t prepare for a post-American security order now, we may not get a second chance.
10/11
☕️ If you appreciate this thread, consider supporting my work: .
Your support keeps these insights coming.
Thank you! 🙏

11/11buymeacoffee.com/terjehelland

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More from @terjehelland

Sep 1
🇺🇸🇬🇪 Oklahomans! In 2020, @SenMullin warned that Georgia’s ruling party was tied to Russia, Iran, and hostile actors.

Today, as a US Senator, he is blocking the bipartisan #MEGOBARIAct- thus protecting the very regime he once called a threat.

What happened?

1/7Image
The #MEGOBARIAct is simple: it holds Georgia’s ruling “Georgian Dream” accountable for democratic backsliding and Russian-style laws and human rights violations.

It passed the House.
It has the backing of 98 Senators.
Only two remain reluctant. Mullin is one of them.
2/7 Image
Blocking MEGOBARI doesn’t just hurt Georgians fighting for democracy.

It helps Moscow, Tehran, and Beijing.
It undermines NATO, US security interests, and our allies in the Black Sea.
This is not “just another bill.” It’s strategic.

3/7 Image
Read 7 tweets
Aug 28
🇬🇪Georgia’s paradox: a government despised by its people, yet firmly in power.
Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream survives not through popularity, but by fusing repression, economic dependency, and rigged institutions.
🧵In this thread I try to explain this paradox.

1/16Image
Polls are clear: Georgians distrust the government, dislike Ivanishvili, and want a European future🇪🇺.
And yet, since 2012, Georgian Dream has ruled without interruption.
Why?
Because the state has been rewired into a machine of loyalty and fear.

2/16 Image
It looks less like a democracy and more like a neo-feudal pyramid.
Ivanishvili sits at the top. Beneath him: ministers, governors, mayors, civil servants - their jobs secured not by merit, but by obedience.

3/16
Read 16 tweets
Aug 26
🇬🇪Georgia is suffocating under Putin’s Trojan Horse @GeorgianDream41.

Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream has turned a pro-European nation into a captured state.

The West is still looking away. It’s time to act - and sanctions are the key.
1/16Image
Ask Georgians: Ivanishvili is despised.

His “foreign agents” law, copied from Moscow, is rejected by the majority. His anti-Western rants fall flat.

So why does Georgian Dream still control the country?
2/16
Because the regime has been hardwired into the state itself.

Courts follow political orders. Laws are weaponized. Elections are tilted. Opposition is criminalized. Protesters are beaten.

This is not governance. It’s Russia’s Trojan Horse strategy in action.
3/16
Read 16 tweets
Aug 21
🇬🇪Why is Georgian Dream surviving despite mass protests, backlash, and international condemnation?

The answer isn’t repression alone. It’s money.

🧵A thread on how Bidzina Ivanishvili’s fortune and Russian inflows saved his regime - and why it’s still may crack.
1/15 Image
This thread draws on an excellent analysis by Jaba Devdariani @JDevdariani & Tornike Zurabashvili @TornikeZ :
“How Money Saved Ivanishvili’s Regime”.

Highly recommended reading ⬇️
2/15
politicsgeo.com/article/168Image
In Georgia, politics has always been about democracy and economics.

Ivanishvili reshaped the system: not just a political boss balancing elites, but a Russia created billionaire oligarch with his own stake in the economy.
3/15 Image
Read 16 tweets
Aug 9
🇬🇪Georgia is undergoing a political transformation - but not towards the future we all want.
The extremist ruling party, Georgian Dream, has evolved into a demagogic, anti-Western machine, deploying propaganda and laws that echo the darkest chapters of the 20th century.
1/17 Image
This is not an exaggeration. Georgian Dream’s tactics combine authoritarian governance, Russia-aligned revisionism, and Goebbels-style propaganda.
There has been a near-total one party state takeover and the systematic dismantling of democracy.
2/17
politicsgeo.com/article/167Image
Since 2022, the party has passed at least 25 major laws that curtail freedoms:
🔹Foreign agent law criminalising independent NGOs and media
🔹Constitutional tools to ban opposition parties outright
🔹Blanket protest restrictions and expanded police powers
oc-media.org/explainer-the-…
Read 17 tweets
Jun 10
🇬🇪A country once seen as the democratic bright spot of the post-Soviet space is now undergoing the fastest authoritarian regression in modern European history.
🧵Here’s a thread to keep you updated on what’s happening - and why it matters.
1/23 Image
🇪🇺Just 18 months ago, Georgia was granted EU candidate status.
Today:
🔹 Rigged elections
🔹 Political prisoners
🔹 Criminalized dissent
🔹 Legislation 100% incompatible with EU membership
🔹 Suspended EU integration
The speed of collapse is staggering - and intentional.
2/23
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Georgian Dream @GeorgianDream41 has steadily severed ties with the West - while mimicking Putin’s playbook at home.
What began as hostile rhetoric is now a barrage of repressive laws targeting opposition, civil society, and journalists.
3/23
Read 25 tweets

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