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

May 26
🇧🇬🇺🇦In March 2025, a voice on the phone said: “We will bring you to your knees, swine.” Weeks later, his family was chased on a Bulgarian highway.
🧵This isn’t fiction. It’s the true story of Svet DiNahum - a writer punished for exposing Russian lies.

1/24 Image
For seven years, Svet DiNahum @sdnahum
has endured state-linked persecution in Bulgaria. His “offenses”?
🔹Writing a novel critical of Russia’s annexation of Crimea
🔹Supporting Ukraine
🔹Publishing peer-reviewed research on Russian disinformation

2/24
It started with his novel Escape from Crimea - a fictional account of Russia’s 2014 invasion. The book sparked fury from pro-Kremlin circles.

What followed was a systematic campaign to isolate and silence him.

3/24 Image
Read 26 tweets
May 25
🇧🇬🇺🇦In March 2025, a voice on the phone said: “We will bring you to your knees, swine.”
Weeks later, his family was chased on a Bulgarian highway.
🧵This isn’t fiction. It’s the true story of Svet DiNahum - a writer punished for exposing Russian lies.

1/24Image
For seven years, Svet DiNahum @sdnahum has endured state-linked persecution in Bulgaria.
His “offenses”?
🔹Writing a novel critical of Russia’s annexation of Crimea
🔹Supporting Ukraine
🔹Publishing peer-reviewed research on Russian disinformation

2/24
It started with his novel Escape from Crimea - a fictional account of Russia’s 2014 invasion. The book sparked fury from pro-Kremlin circles.

What followed was a systematic campaign to isolate and silence him.

3/24Image
Read 24 tweets
May 5
🇬🇪SANCTION BILL: The U.S. Congress has just passed a historic bill that strikes at the heart of Georgian Dream’s regime.
It labels GD as pro-Kremlin, mandates sanctions, freezes aid, and declares the government unfit to lead a Western-aligned Georgia.
🧵This changes everything.
1/8Image
For the first time, Georgian Dream is officially designated by a major Western power as a pro-Russian force working against Georgia’s democratic and Euro-Atlantic future.
Their façade of “pro-European stability” has collapsed — in full view of the world.
2/8 Image
Image
Image
The law mandates Global Magnitsky-style sanctions within 60 days.
Targets will include Ivanishvili’s inner circle, top officials behind repression, and those rigging elections or abusing civil society.
This cuts deep into the foundations of GD’s power.
3/8 Image
Read 8 tweets
May 3
🇬🇪As the U.S. ramps up sanctions against Iran, Georgia’s ruling party, Georgian Dream, is quietly strengthening ties with Iran, Russia, and China, potentially positioning Georgia as a backdoor conduit for sanctioned regimes.
An Iran–Georgia sanctions evasion thread ...
1/9Image
Since 2023, trade between Georgia and Iran has surged significantly. Georgian imports from Iran jumped from $167 million in 2022 to approximately $285 million by 2024, including petrochemicals, metals, and construction materials—all crucial sectors targeted by U.S. sanctions.
2/9 Image
Alarmingly, Georgia’s imports of Iranian natural gas surged by 600% in 2023. Though still modest in volume, this trend demonstrates a clear willingness by Tbilisi to test Western sanctions boundaries, potentially emboldening further energy-related cooperation.
3/9
Read 13 tweets
Apr 21
🇬🇪 April 9, 1989: Soviet paratroopers crushed a peaceful pro-independence rally in Tbilisi.
21 Georgians were killed.
The commander on the ground?
Alexander Lebed, a rising Soviet general.
Years later, he would be funded by Bidzina Ivanishvili—Georgia’s future PM.
A thread 🧵Image
April 9 became sacred in Georgia—etched in the national soul as the day the fight for freedom turned deadly.
But in 2025, Georgian Dream’s leader, Kobakhidze, said this:
“36 years later, still a foreign force is engaged in violence on Rustaveli Avenue.”
He meant the protesters.Image
The self-proclaimed PM equated the protesters of today with the murderers of 1989.
A reversal so grotesque it reveals what Georgian Dream has become:
A party that speaks in anti-Russian code while functioning as Russia’s Trojan horse.
In the center of this is Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Read 23 tweets
Apr 14
🇬🇪Exit polls confirmed Georgia’s opposition—Coalition for Change, UNM, Strong Georgia, and For Georgia—won decisively in the Oct '24 elections
Yet overnight, the Central Election Commission declared Georgian Dream (GD) victorious with 53%. Observers denounce this as blatant fraud Image
Western democracies rightly refuse to recognize GD’s illegitimate government. The extreme GD don't care. They are doubling down—introducing a law to BAN these opposition parties, labeling them anti-Georgian, anti-constitutional, anti-national, and criminal
globalnews.ge/en/georgia/123…
This is GD’s latest move: empowering the Constitutional Court—controlled by GD appointees—to swiftly outlaw political parties based on vague accusations.
These steps will cement an authoritarian and emerging dictatorial regime.Image
Read 5 tweets

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