Trump picks Adams, a former nominee for ambassador to Malaysia, as US tourism envoy

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has picked Mr Nick Adams, a right-wing influencer known for his machismo and professed love for steaks and the restaurant chain Hooters, to be a new diplomatic envoy for US tourism.

According to the State Department, Mr Adams has served as the “special presidential envoy for American tourism, exceptionalism and values” since March 17. The new position is aimed at promoting US tourist attractions, such as national parks and other monuments, according to the White House.

Mr Trump had previously nominated Mr Adams, who has a history of making Islamophobic remarks, to be the ambassador to Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country of about 35 million people in South-east Asia. Mr Adams told The Sydney Morning Herald in February that his nomination had been pulled.

In a social media post on March 24, Mr Adams said that Mr Trump had asked him to “reignite a love for America at home, and relight the sacred beacon atop the shining city on a hill for the entire world to see”. It is unclear if Mr Adams’ position will be paid.

Mr Davis Ingle, a White House spokesperson, did not answer questions about why Mr Adams’ previous nomination had been pulled. In a statement, he called Mr Adams “an America First patriot who will represent our country well as we celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary of independence, and we look forward to working with him to further showcase and advance America’s excellence across the world stage”.

Mr Adams, who did not respond to a request for comment, had amassed a conservative following with his over-the-top “alpha male” persona, one of many members of the “manosphere”, an unruly world of online content appealing to young men who have aligned with Mr Trump or have been sympathetic to his policies.

An Australian immigrant to the United States who became an early, fawning supporter of Mr Trump, Mr Adams is known online for his crass humour and other forms of internet trolling. Once a local politician in Australia, he was pushed out of the country’s centre-right Liberal Party for conduct “likely to embarrass or cause damage to the reputation” of the party.

Mr Adams has posted frequently online about stereotypical symbols of masculinity, like eating steak and visiting Hooters – the chain restaurant famous for its scantily-clad waitresses. In 2025, for example, he wrote that Hooters’ planned bankruptcy was caused by “Bidenflation, combined with the woke un-Americanism of the Democrats”.

He continued, “I personally volunteer myself to lead a Presidential Taskforce For The Preservation of Hooters.”

Mr Adams has tempered some of that outrageous persona since he was nominated for a diplomatic post, instead focusing his posts on cheerleading Trump and his administration.

In August, Mr Adams wrote, “yes, I am an alpha male. Yes, I eat rare steaks. Yes, I visit Hooters frequently. Yes, I love America. Yes, I support President Trump unconditionally. Yes, I was nominated to be US Ambassador to Malaysia. No, I will not be apologising. For any of it.”

But Mr Adams has not posted on the social platform X about Hooters since then, and some of his most incendiary posts have been scrubbed from social media. On occasion, he has mentioned his love for steak. When Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr celebrated his 72nd birthday in January with “no cake, just steak”, Mr Adams shared the post, adding, “this is how alpha males celebrate birthdays”.

Mr Trump wrote the foreword to Mr Adams’ book promoting macho ideology, Alpha Kings, praising him as “one of my favourite authors and also one of my favourite speakers”.

In 2017, Mr Trump promoted another of his books, Green Card Warrior: My Quest for Legal Immigration in an Illegals’ System, which was published soon after he arrived in the United States.

Mr Adams became a naturalised US citizen in 2021. NYTIMES