Who is Nick Adams? From a Sydney council to Trump’s plum pick, the Hooters fan could be next US ambassador to Malaysia

Who is Nick Adams?

Adams was, once upon a time, Australia’s youngest ever deputy mayor, with a penchant for talking about pigeons and dog poo. Twenty years after his stint at Ashfield council, the University of Sydney graduate is a Trump-loving, beer-swilling, steak-eating, self-described “alpha male”.

He became a US citizen in 2021.

And now, the US president, Donald Trump, has nominated him as the country’s ambassador to Malaysia – a conservative, Islamic country.

Adams thanked his parents for giving him every opportunity. “I only wish my father were alive to see this,” he wrote on X, adding that “delusional self-belief and irrational optimism, along with endless hard work, make anything possible”.

One of his most-quoted tweets includes the memorable lines:

“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.”

Why has Trump picked him for US ambassador to Malaysia?

An ambassador is usually a lifelong diplomat or a former politician. They exist to grease the wheels of international relations, to represent their country in a foreign land, and to keep their country informed about what’s going on in that land.

Adams is an “incredible patriot”, Trump wrote on social media, and “a bestselling author, speaker, and commentator”. He has “made it his life’s mission to extol the Virtues of American Greatness”.

What is an ‘alpha male’?

In the animal world the alpha male is the dominant one in a group. The term has been dragged into the murk of the manosphere.

In Adams’ case, he posted a video on X in which he emerges, damply, from a sauna to declare himself an alpha male and to tell “all the beautiful ladies” whose birthday wishes he has made come true that they are “welcome”. He called for his birthday to be made a public holiday and for all alpha males to celebrate it, order a larger steak and smoke a “girthier cigar”.

He also wrote a book called Alpha Kings (with a foreword by one Donald J Trump), which “makes the case for traditional masculinity” and promises to “show the young men of America what it means to be a true alpha male in today’s hyper-feminized world”.

What are some of his Australian career highlights?

“I’m not an expert,” Adams said in 2005. “I’m certainly not a pest controller … What I would like to see is no pigeons in our area.” Eradicating the rats of the sky would save the citizens of Ashfield from bird flu, he thought.

In 2008, he proposed DNA testing dog poo left in public so their owners can be tracked down and fined.

In 2009, the Channel Ten journalist Brett Mason asked him about council meetings he had missed. In return, Adams verbally abused Mason, which led to the Liberal party threatening to suspend him. He said he quit anyway.

And what does he do now?

He runs the Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness, a non-profit “dedicated to promoting and providing high-quality civics education that informs students and families about the greatness of America and the power of the American Dream”.

Of about US$1.5m it brings in revenue, a jot over US$500,000 goes to salaries and other employee expenses – Adams being one of three employees, but the only one who draws a salary, according to the latest details lodged. About US$185,000 goes on travel and a bit over US$400,000 goes on social media campaigns.

It’s a far cry from being a councillor, where you’d be doing well to take home A$50,000 – and maybe a bit more during a stint as deputy mayor.

He also founded 1A Warriors, a “non-profit organization dedicated to securing, protecting, and preserving our beautiful and exceptional First Amendment” that is practically nonexistent online.

And he’s written a bunch of books on top of Alpha Kings, including Green Card Warrior about his struggles to become a US resident.

What happens next?

He has to be confirmed by the Senate first, and if that goes through, he will replace Edgard Kagan as the US ambassador to Malaysia.

The Malaysian media was relatively quiet on Friday about the appointment, but there are sure to be mutterings and raised eyebrows behind closed doors. Once Adams takes up residence in Kuala Lumpur, he will be hard-pressed to find a Hooters-like establishment, but he’ll be OK for steaks and beer.

Then he will have to tread a delicate and sophisticated line as the US and Malaysia negotiate trade tariffs, joust over their respective relationships with China and deal with an increasingly unstable geopolitical climate.