Trump names self-styled ‘alpha male’ influencer ambassador to Malaysia
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he plans to nominate Nick Adams, a former Australian politician and controversial MAGA influencer, to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to Malaysia.
“Nick is an incredible Patriot and very successful entrepreneur, whose love of, and devotion to, our Great Country is an inspiration,” Trump wrote on social media, touting Adams for making it “his life’s mission to extol the Virtues of American Greatness.”
Adams, who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen, thanked Trump in an effusive Substack post, saying he is “not only my favorite President, you are my favorite person.”
“Your loyalty, honesty, intelligence, and patriotism set a tremendous example of American excellence for our fellow citizens and for friends of America throughout the world,” he wrote.
Adams, a self-professed “alpha male” and longtime Trump loyalist who was a campaign surrogate last year, has made a name for himself online advocating for a particular brand of conservative masculinity and railing against “woke” culture.
He calls his followers Nick Adams Disciples, or “Nads,” and uses his highly active X account to discuss his love of Hooters and red meat — “Real men eat steak!” he wrote in May — criticize gender pronouns and lavishly praise the president.
If confirmed, Adams would be the latest Trump administration appointee plucked from the conservative media ecosystem, a group that includes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, as well as FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, a podcast host who spent years pushing spurious conspiracy theories about the bureau.
Adams’s nomination comes as Malaysia turns toward China, which has been courting Southeast Asian countries in an effort to forge an alternative to Western dominance. Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country, has long been a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights, while Adams has vocally backed Israel and has a history of making Islamophobic remarks.
Born Nick Adamopoulos to a Greek father and German mother, Adams became the youngest deputy mayor in Australian history at 21. He adopted a nationalistic approach in his early days in politics, warning of what he saw as the threats of multiculturalism, The Washington Post has reported.
He began missing council meetings to give motivational speeches in the United States, and in 2009, the conservative Liberal Party of Australia suspended him after he verbally abused a journalist, according to local media. Adams told The Post he resigned from the party before the suspension took effect. He left Australia in 2012 and became an American citizen in 2021.
Adams was an early supporter of Trump, telling Fox News in March 2016 that Trump would “absolutely pulverize Hillary Clinton in a general election.” The president wrote the foreword for Adams’s book “Alpha Kings,” in which Adams offers advice to young men, including advocating for verbally “correcting” women.
“When an alpha male interrupts a woman to correct her, it’s not ‘mansplaining,’” Adams writes. “It’s education.”
Adams is the founder of the Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness, a nonprofit “dedicated to educating Americans about the values and principles that make our nation exceptional.”
Should he be confirmed as ambassador, a stint in Malaysia will mark a change of pace for Adams, who told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2017 that he immigrated to the U.S. “because I love guns, hot dogs, chicken fried steak, barbecue, cheerleaders, American football, small town parades, beauty pageants, pick-up trucks, muscle cars and 16-lane freeways lined with supersized American flags.”