President Donald Trump’s decision to nominate MAGA commentator Nick Adams as the next U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia is being met with raised eyebrows in Asia, according to a report.
Trump’s nominee, 40, was an outspoken supporter of the Republican’s presidential campaign last year and is known as a culture warrior and “alpha male” provocateur with a reputation for firing out incendiary social media posts, including one in which he referred to pop superstar Taylor Swift as a “woke jezebel.”
In another viral offering, Adams declared: “I go to Hooters. I eat rare steaks. I lift extremely heavy weights. I read the Bible every night. I am pursued by copious amounts of women. I am wildly successful. I have the physique of a Greek God. I have an IQ over 180. I am extremely charismatic. They hate this.”
While often toying with parody in his public pronouncements on red meat conservatism and “nasty women”, Adams struck a more serious demeanor in a video posted to X on Thursday in which he appeared sat in front of an oak bookcase wearing a blue blazer and striped tie to say it is “the honor of a lifetime” to be considered for the Malaysia posting.
His confirmation by the Senate would see him replace Edgard Kagan after less than 16 months in Kuala Lumpur. Still, it is feared that the brash but inexperienced Adams could be the wrong fit for Muslim-majority Malaysia, “which favours quiet diplomacy over headline-grabbing rhetoric,” according to The South China Morning Post.
“It’s a surprising pick that favours political loyalists over those who actually fit the post,” the newspaper quotes an unnamed diplomat based in the Malaysian capital as saying.
The Morning Post also notes that now is a sensitive time for U.S.-Malaysian relations, with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim criticizing Trump’s long-threatened tariffs as “sharpened instruments of geopolitical rivalry” and opposing American support for Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The decision to replace Kagan so soon into his tenure has also “raised questions about Washington’s commitment to continuity in its mission in Malaysia,” the broadsheets adds.
Though not previously a diplomat, Adams does have some prior political experience.
He was born in Sydney, Australia, and became his homeland’s youngest-ever deputy mayor in 2005 when he was elected to help run suburban Ashfield and made headlines with colorful policies like trying to ban pigeons for spreading bird flu and using DNA testing to track down dog owners who failed to clean up after their pets, according to The Washington Post.
He was criticized in the press for failing to attend council meetings and allegedly incurring excessive expenses. He was finally driven out of the Liberal Party of Australia after being threatened with suspension over an offensive rant about a journalist.
He subsequently emigrated to the United States in 2012. He rose to prominence in conservative youth circles when Trump praised his books, Green Card Warrior (2016) and Retaking American (2017), in a pair of tweets, leading Adams to proclaim himself “Trump’s Favorite Author.”
The president subsequently appointed him to the board of Washington’s Woodrow Wilson Center in 2020, which “provides nonpartisan counsel and insights on global affairs to policymakers,” according to its website.
Once asked by The Sydney Morning Herald why he had left Australia for the United States, Adams answered: “Because I love guns, hot dogs, chicken fried steak, barbecue, cheerleaders, American football, small town parades, beauty pageants, pickup trucks, muscle cars and 16-lane freeways lined with supersized American flags.”
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