Trump’s Hooters-loving Malaysia ambassador pick worries Asean diplomats
Nick Adams, who rallied actively for Trump at the 2024 US election, has drawn controversy over his misogynistic remarks and brash nature
The White House’s decision to nominate right-wing commentator Nick Adams as ambassador to Malaysia has sparked unease among diplomats and observers in Southeast Asia, amid concerns that US President Donald Trump is prioritising political loyalty over diplomatic expertise.
Adams, an Australian-born conservative activist, was among five ambassadorial picks submitted for Senate confirmation this week, alongside nominees for Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Kazakhstan.
The controversial nominee, who has claimed he is Trump’s favourite author, has built a reputation for his incendiary social media posts, tabloid-leaning stunts and fervent support for the US leader. He has drawn headlines for his misogynistic remarks – including calling American pop star Taylor Swift a “jezebel” – and once staged a protest in New York’s Times Square over an M&M’s “all-female” candy package celebrating women.
In one widely shared social media post, 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,” adding his critics “hate me because I have the body of a Greek God”.
As Trump ramped up his campaign ahead of the November 2024 presidential election, Adams was among his loudest cheerleaders, appearing at rallies, on TV panels and in interviews to defend the Republican candidate’s views.
In a video posted to social media on Thursday, Adams thanked Trump for nominating him and said, “It is nothing short of a lifetime’s honour to take the president’s goodwill and spread it to the great people of Malaysia.”
Adam’s brash persona marks a stark departure from previous ambassadors to Muslim-majority Malaysia, typically seasoned career diplomats suited to the country’s cautious, pragmatic and subtle style of foreign policy, which favours quiet diplomacy over headline-grabbing rhetoric.
Malaysia, one of the founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), has been highly critical of US foreign policy recently. In particular, it slammed Washington’s backing of Israel’s destruction of Gaza as well as Trump’s unilateral tariffs targeted at trade partners including Malaysia, with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim calling them “sharpened instruments of geopolitical rivalry” against weaker states.
Adams is set to replace US ambassador Edgard Kagan, whose stint of only almost 16 months to date in Kuala Lumpur has raised questions about Washington’s commitment to continuity in its mission in Malaysia.
“It’s a surprising pick that favours political loyalists over those who actually fit the post,” a diplomat in Kuala Lumpur, who declined to be named, told This Week in Asia.
Washington’s latest diplomatic pick comes after US Senator Tammy Duckworth, who famously grilled then Defence Secretary-nominee Pete Hegseth over his ignorance of Asean at a Senate confirmation hearing in January, criticised Trump’s ambassador-nominee to Singapore, orthopaedic surgeon Anjani Sinha, over his lack of knowledge of the city state on Wednesday.
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“This is not a role you can just pick up on a whim, or because you think it will be glamorous, or because Singapore is a great place to live,” said Duckworth, a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel and the first Thai American woman elected to Congress.
“You are not currently prepared for this posting, period. And you need to shape up and do some homework,” the Illinois Democratic senator said.
A 2016 Bloomberg report described Sinha as well known around Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, fuelling allegations he was nominated for being the president’s golf buddy. In a social media post, Trump called Sinha “a highly respected entrepreneur, with an incredible family!”, without giving details about his diplomatic credentials.
Adams, however, has political experience, having been elected as Australia’s youngest ever deputy mayor at the age of 21 in 2005. Overseeing the Sydney suburb of Ashfield, Adams made headlines for trying to ban pigeons to prevent bird flu and for racking up phone and taxi charges for personal use.
His Liberal Party threatened to suspend him for embarrassing the party, but Adams resigned before disciplinary action could be taken against him and emigrated to the US in 2012.
Explaining his move to the US in a 2017 interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Adams said he chose the country “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”.
