President Donald Trump’s pick to be the United States’ next ambassador to Malaysia has raised more than a few eyebrows in the Southeast Asian nation. Right-wing influencer Nick Adams, a naturalized American born and raised in Australia, is, by his own account, a weightlifting, Bible-reading, “wildly successful” and “extremely charismatic” fan of Hooters and rare steaks, with the “physique of a Greek God” and “an IQ over 180.”
Such brashness seems at odds with the usually more quiet business of diplomacy. The same could be said about Adams’ lack of relevant experience, temperament and expressed opinions – which clash starkly with prevailing sentiment in majority-Muslim, socially conservative Malaysia.
