Trump’s Aussie ‘alpha male’ is falling flat in Malaysia

US President Donald Trump’s nomination of a right-wing provocateur with a history of making Islamophobic remarks as his man in Muslim-majority Malaysia has gone down, of course, like a lead balloon.

Protests in Kuala Lumpur against would-be ambassador Nick Adams kicked off last week and will probably return if he is waved through as expected in an upcoming Senate confirmation hearing.

Nick Adams, Donald Turmp’s pick to be US ambassador to Malaysia, is a self-described alpha male and conservative commentator.Credit: Nick Adams, Instagram

Adams, an Australian-accented, naturalised American who self-identifies as an “alpha male” with “oozing masculine confidence” and “charisma”, fawned his way into the US president’s favour as a brash, conservative pundit and MAGAsphere influencer.

Braggadocio aside, the main reason Malaysians are upset at his nomination – to their country, of all places – is his hostility to the plight of Palestine, a cause close to the hearts of millions of Malaysians, and his history of making Islamophobic remarks, which includes denigrating Trump’s rivals as supporters of Islam and critiquing efforts to “teach Islam in schools”.

Then there is this anecdote Adams himself posted to X last year.

“I sat down for lunch today with a broker on a deal,” he wrote. “The waitress arrived wearing a Free Palestine pin. I demanded to speak with the owner. I had Leslie promptly fired, and then closed my deal.

“I won’t tolerate being served by those who support terror, I stand with Israel.”

While unverified, the anecdote shines a spotlight on how Adams sees himself and the situation in the Middle East, which could be problematic in Malaysia, where Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and other government types are often seen in scarves with the pattern of a keffiyeh in a show of Palestinian solidarity.

Will Adams treat the prime minister the same as “Leslie”?

The 40-year-old was barely known in his native Australia before being tapped by Trump this month. His claim to fame before packing up for the US was being Australia’s youngest ever deputy mayor (for Ashfield council in Sydney), a platform he used in the mid-noughties to spout wacky ideas that went nowhere, like culling pigeons to stop avian flu.

Anwar Ibrahim addresses a pro-Palestinian gathering in Kuala Lumpur in 2023.Credit: Bloomberg

The Americans, however, put him on the telly and conservative speaking circuits, where he has relished owning woke lefties, worshipping Trump and espousing supposed old-school masculinity.

This, of course, caught Trump’s eye. The president returned the love by endorsing Adams’ books, including 2016’s Retaking America, in which the author declares, “We don’t want a president who has more sympathy for Muslims than Jews” and “there are many peaceful and law-abiding Muslims, but this does not make Islam a religion of peace”.

In one passage, written in the context of Islamic State’s brutality in the Middle East, Adams muses on the “culturally confident, passionate” leaders of Australia and America who locked up people of Japanese descent during World War II.

“There is significant evidence of disloyalty ... both on the individual and mosque level. Yet never once, anywhere, to my knowledge, has the internment of Muslims as a policy idea been floated,” he wrote.

“Let me be clear: I am not advocating for the current internment of Muslims in America, Australia or anywhere else. But I also do not believe it should never be considered, nor do I believe anyone should fear raising the concept.”

Here is another titbit from Retaking America: “I’m a Western civilisation guy. I have little cultural interest in Asia and Africa. Except for Israel, I have no great impulse to visit the Middle East.”

Perhaps he has since discovered an appreciation for Asian cultures.

Anwar is staring at a Nick Adams-shaped pickle. The youth wing of his People’s Justice Party said it would submit a memorandum of protest to the US embassy. Others are upset too. Kasthuri Patto of coalition partner DAP (Democratic Action Party) said “Malaysia deserves better” than a man of his “extreme and conservative views including Islamophobia”.

Malaysian protesters display placards during a demonstration against the US envoy nominee Nick Adams outside the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur last week.Credit: AFP

Nick Adams poses for a portrait at Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, California, on March 18, 2024.Credit: The Washington Post via Getty Images

But Anwar can hardly push back on Trump’s nomination when Malaysia is attempting to negotiate down from a steep 25 per cent tariff rate. At the same time, conservative elements of Malaysian politics would like to leverage any perceived weakness in defending Islam and the Palestinian cause. Anwar said the government would give Adams “due consideration”.

“My understanding is that the Malaysian government will not reject whoever is sent by Washington because they can’t afford to fight Washington at the present moment,” Professor James Chin, a Malaysia expert at the University of Tasmania, said.

“So the spin in Kuala Lumpur is that, yes, this guy is stupid, he’s nasty, he’s pro-Israel blah, blah, blah, but he has a direct line to Trump. We may need him to help us with the trade deals.

“My guess is that he will totally reinvent himself in front of the Senate hearing. You will see that he’ll say all the right things about Islam; all [the] right things about Malaysia. He’ll come across as a reasonable person.”

Adams did not respond to requests for an interview or comment.

The Foreign Relations Committee, which has not set a date for Adams’ hearing, is controlled by Trump’s Republican Party and has not blocked a nomination this term. And with Malaysia seeking better deals with the Trump administration, it would take something extraordinary to keep Adams in America.

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