Good afternoon, Press Pass readers. From the top, I want to give a special thank you to all of our Bulwark+ subscribers who sent along correspondence from their elected officials regarding the GOP budget. I received so many messages that I’m afraid I didn’t get to send a thank you note to everyone who sent me something. But please keep sending these lawmaker letters as you receive them. And if you want to get in on the sanity-reinforcing fun of being a part of our Bulwark+ community, join us by upgrading your subscription at the link below. Today’s edition is about Trump’s latest nomination sent to the Senate for confirmation: his appointment for Ambassador to Malaysia. This may be his wildest selection yet and a real test of the idiocy Senate Republicans will stomach. Indeed, we may soon get an ambassador who is far more interested in gulping beers and slamming sodium-laden food at Hooters—yes, that Hooters—than doing the kind of serious foreign policy work his prospective ambassadorship would require of him. In addition, the Defense Department is becoming a nice landing pad for Matt Gaetz’s former employees. And lastly, a Senate candidate is using Nancy Pelosi’s public disclosures as a roadmap for making his own financial investments—and folks, I’ve never related to a political candidate the way I relate to this guy. All that and more, below. Will the Senate Actually Confirm Trump’s Hooters-Obsessed Nominee?The restaurant chain known for their, er, breasts won’t comment on Nick Adams, their now-famous customer recently picked to become ambassador to Malaysia. But some lawmakers did.
President Donald Trump has elevated plenty of unqualified characters to important posts in his administration. Fox News has led the pack as something of a farm team for the administration, which has welcomed many of the network’s on-air personalities and pundits into its ranks. But top cabinet positions and plum roles at various federal agencies have also gone to daytime TV personalities at other TV networks. Meanwhile, garden-variety conspiracy theorists and eyebrow-raising youngsters who developed their own audiences by other means are scoring gigs, too. The latest capital-W Weirdo to get the call-up is Nick Adams, an ultra-conservative online personality whose opinions are so quaintly outrageous that many have speculated that his persona is actually a bit of overcommitted performance art or stunt comedy. Apparently, it’s not a bit. Or, if it is, it’s being taken way too far. Last week, Trump tapped Adams, a naturalized U.S. citizen who hails from Australia, to serve as U.S. ambassador to Malaysia. Adams does not have much in the way of foreign policy experience. But he constantly volunteers to clear trenches in the culture war, which aligns him with the central concern of the second Trump presidency. For political (and definitely not psychological) reasons, he despises M&M’s candy, hates feminism, and loves writing suggestive posts about how much he enjoys “having a foursome with the boys.” (He means golf.) His posting leitmotif is the idea of being an “alpha male.” Adams also loves the restaurant chain Hooters. He has posted on X about the franchise more than 500 times over the past several years. That last Adams post brings to mind something Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote: “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”¹ |