Georgian Dream propagandist turns on Trump and Vance, claims they are tools of the ‘deep state’
Key Georgian Dream propagandist Zaza Shatirishvili has lashed out against US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, claiming that despite past optimism, the two are also tools of the ‘rebranded deep state’.
Georgian Dream often uses the terms ‘deep state’ and ‘global war party’ to refer to shadowy figures that seek to destabilise Georgia, undermine freedoms across the world, and instigate conflict.
The tirade, printed by the pro-government media outlet POSTV on Thursday, appeared to indicate an increasing sense of frustration from Georgian Dream that its long-held hopes Georgia’s relations with the US could be mended under Trump have not come true.
Shatirishvili’s comments came just days after Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili penned an open letter to Trump, complaining that Washington was not paying enough attention to Georgia despite their shared political values. In the letter, Kavelashvili also warned that the void of attention was instead being filled by the deep state.
Even before the 2024 US presidential election, Georgian Dream officials had openly expressed optimism that Georgia’s relations with the US, which reached an all-time low under President Joe Biden, could be repaired if Trump was elected.
Georgian Dream has spent considerable effort trying to court the Trump administration in various ways, including with alleged help from Hungary, which is one of Trump’s closest allies in the EU.
However, they soon began to temper the expected rapprochement, and there have yet to be significant changes — or the removal of US sanctions — eight months into Trump’s second term.
Shatirishvili said that Trump and his team are saying the right words, such as pledging to defeat the deep state and its tools, referring to USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), but claimed the rhetoric is just window dressing to hide that the deep state has just been rebranded.
Trump is only ‘acting’ like he is fighting the deep state, Shatirishvili argued, but is actually helping ‘oligarchic families [...] plunder Europe for the benefit of the United States’.
Shatirishvili’s comments come days ahead of a hearing at the Helsinki Commission about the state of Georgia’s democracy.
The US MEGOBARI Act, a piece of legislation aimed at increasing sanctions on Georgia should its democratic backsliding continue (along with significant carrots if it is reversed), has passed the House of Representatives but has not yet been held for a vote in the Senate. In recent weeks, there have been rumours that the bill may not have enough support in the Senate to be passed.
Yousef Bardouka
