Nicholas Adams | |
|---|---|
 Adams speaking at an event in 2021 | |
| Councillor of the Municipality of Ashfield | |
| In office 2004–2009 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Nicholas Adamopoulos September 5, 1984[1] Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Citizenship | Australia United States |
| Political party | Republican (United States) |
| Other political affiliations | Liberal (Australia) |
| Residence(s) | Palm Harbor, Florida, United States |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney |
| Occupation | Author, commentator, motivational speaker |
Nick Adams (born Nicholas Adamopoulos; September 5, 1984) is an Australian-born American conservative political commentator and author.
Adams came to public attention on March 3, 2017, when Donald Trump made favorable comments and tweets about his work, notably a tweet promoting Adams' book Green Card Warrior and a second tweet on August 25, 2017, promoting his book Retaking America.[2][3][4]
He is best known for his messaging that promotes rugged masculinity, which Adams refers to as being an "alpha male."[5]
Adams was born in Sydney, Australia to a Greek Australian father and a German Australian mother.[6] Adams survived stage IV neuroblastoma diagnosed at 16 months of age.[7] An American doctor diagnosed Adams, which he credits in part for his love of the United States.[5] He was raised in a strict household with parental expectations of being successful.[5] Adams said about his upbringing, "[when] I was 5 years old, [my father] began to treat me like an adult...He [did not] dumb things down for me, [did not] cut me any slack, he [did not] accept if I mispronounced a word or made a grammatical error, he held me to account."[5] Adams attended Trinity Grammar School and went on to attend the University of Sydney where he graduated with a Bachelor of Media and Communications.[7][4]
Adams was elected to the Municipality of Ashfield council in 2004 on the Liberal Party's ticket.[8] At age 21, he was elected as deputy mayor, the youngest ever in Australia.[7][9] He was elected under a loophole which allowed Adams as a non-resident to run for elections.[10] In 2005, as Deputy Mayor, Adams put forward a motion to ban pigeons from the Municipality of Ashfield due to fears of the bird flu, but failed to explain how this plan would be implemented.[8][11] Adams also suggested that the city use a DNA-test to catch dog owners, who fail to clean up their dogs poop.[5] He was criticized for often missing council meetings because he was traveling the American speaking circuit as a motivational speaker.[8]
In October 2006, Adams was "formally condemned by fellow Councillors after racking up thousands of dollars worth of phone calls and Cabcharges for personal benefit."[12] Mark Drury, a former member of the council, said that if Adams "didn’t have a stunt, he wouldn’t turn up to meetings."[5]
As a member of the Ashfield council, Adams denounced multiculturalism, saying "It creates groups and pockets of people that of course, then feel that there are certain elements of superiority and inferiority and I think that we need to be united."[13]
When Adams was a City Councilor, he privately expressed the goal of eventually becoming the Prime Minister of Australia.[5]
In 2009, the Liberal Party of Australia threatened to suspend Adams from the party for six-months for conduct deemed likely to "embarrass or cause damage to" the Party during an altercation with Brett Mason, a journalist for Channel Ten. Mason was filming a report on Adams' absences from the council due to overseas travel when Adams confronted him, stating, "I would just like to say that Brett Mason is a [expletive] good-for-nothing [expletive]. Thank you."[8][13][14][4] However, Adams claims he resigned from the party before he could be suspended.[5] Adams resigned from Australian politics in 2012.[9]
President Donald Trump appointed Adams, in 2020, to the Board of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.[15] Some members of the center's staff have found Adam's presence on the board to be an "embarrassment."[5] Adams traveled with the center's board to Israel in 2023.[5]
Adams first visited the United States in 2009 as part of a speaking tour.[7]
In 2010, Adams was the PR consultant for The Halloween Institute, a march to make Halloween a public holiday in Australia. It was later revealed those who protested were paid actors.[13]
Adams immigrated to the United States in 2012.[8] He said that he immigrated to America because "I love guns, hot dogs, chicken fried steak, barbecue, cheerleaders, American football, small town parades, beauty pageants, pick-up trucks, muscle cars and 16-lane freeways lined with supersized American flags." Adams works as a motivational speaker and conservative activist. He has said that his fascination of the American political system led him to promoting American ideals.[7] Then-Texas Governor Rick Perry crowned Adams an "honorary Texan" prior to a speech in 2013.[13]
In 2016, Adams founded a non-profit Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness (FLAG) that promotes American exceptionalism in schools.[7] Adams, in conjunction with FLAG and former interns for Antonin Scalia, have produced and distributed kid-friendly versions of the American constitution that promote constitutional rights and originalism.[13]
Adams was an early supporter of Donald Trump. In March 2016, Adams appeared on Fox News and predicted Trump would "absolutely pulverize Hillary Clinton."[5] He was a surrogate for Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign.[16] After the 2020 election, Adams promoted the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.[17] Adams was named a surrogate for Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.[5]
In addition to appearing on Fox News and other conservative media outlets, Adams has been a columnist for Townhall and a "Centennial Institute Policy Fellow" at Colorado Christian University.[13]
Disciples of Adams are nicknamed "Nads."[5]
Adams opposes education regarding LGBTQ topics in schools and said that only a "bad parent" would take their children to see a drag queen show.[18] LGBTQ Nation, an online news magazine, has alleged Adam's apparent hypocrisy on this topic as he has suggested taking children to Hooters.[18]
Adams is known for his use of social media and has been described as a "Twitter troll."[19] On Twitter, he has described himself as a "wildly successful alpha male", claimed that Donald Trump has "a better backhand than Roger Federer" and said "raise your children to be like Kid Rock and Kyle Rittenhouse, NOT Taylor Swift and Harry Styles!"[19][20][21]
Luke Winkie, writing for Slate, said that beginning in 2022, "I and a great number of other people outside of [Adams'] target demographic have noticed a fascinating shift in Adams’ Twitter verbiage—one that reveals the faintest hint that maybe, just maybe, this has all been a bit."[22] Winkie stated he came to this conclusion after seeing Adams' obsessive tweets about Hooters, as well as his tweets regarding having a "foursome with the boys" (Adams contests that the foursome is in regards to golfing partners).[22] Calling Adams "a mystery that nobody can solve", Winkie hypothesized that he is actually a far-right Republican, but as the popularity of Donald Trump has declined, Adams found it beneficial to be a "weird, self-reflexive, tongue-in-cheek interpretation of [Trumpism]."[22] Adams also sells "Alpha Male"–branded merchandise including hats, shirts and mugs, which may reveal that profit is behind Adam's alleged routine.[22] Ben Terris writing in The Washington Post said that Adams' routine of "MAGA manhood is so over-the-top, so uncanny that it almost seems like performance art."[5] Adams' hired security guard has compared him to Andy Kaufman, a comedian known for never breaking character.[5]
Know Your Meme includes Adams as one of their internet celebrities.[23] They have described Adams as espousing conservative talking points in a way that many view as "exaggerated and over-the-top...leading some to believe he is not being completely sincere."[23] Know Your Meme points out, for example, that Adams blamed the Republicans poor performance in the 2022 United States midterm elections on not enough members of Gen Z, who voted, eating at Hooters while growing up. Additionally, they note that Adams was widely mocked after criticizing Rihanna's performance at the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show and saying that country music artists Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood, as well as rock and roll artist Ted Nugent, would have had a better performance.[23] He has also described Jason Aldean, Wayne Newton and the University of Tennessee's Pride of the Southland Band as some of the top-10 current musicians in the United States.[23]
However, a number of figures have defended Adams and said that his rhetoric is serious. Isaac Smith, a Board Member for the D.C. Young Republicans, said that he believes Adams is "sincere" and he is "taking things that are real and playing them up to the nth degree." Tex Fischer, a Republican strategist, has said Adams "really likes winding people up" and rehashed story of Adams going out to dinner with a chapter president of Turning Point USA and introducing him to the waitress as a famous porn star in a voice audible enough for the whole restaurant to hear. Fischer argues Adams is not playing a character because "he is a character."[5] In an interview with The Washington Post, Adams said "This is not a character...This is not a bit. It’s not trolling. Anyone who thinks this is not me, that I don’t eat steak, that I don’t drink ice-cold domestics, that I don’t repel woke beer, they’re wrong. They’re absolutely wrong."[5]
Adams is prone to telling stories that are unlikely to be true, but present Donald Trump in a positive light.[5] For instance, Adams posted a story on Twitter in 2024 about "two attractive college educated Latina career women," who "disliked Biden’s [State of the Union] speech, and [stated] that they miss President Trump." The women then went on to praise Adam's muscles and then a "crowd had gathered to cheer me on...the sound of my masculine grunts broken only by the two [women] counting my reps in unison."[5] Adams has defended these posts saying that his "stories are true stories."[5]
Adams has never been married or had children. He lives by himself in a 6,884 square feet (639.5 m2) Palm Harbor, Florida mansion.[5] He became an American citizen in 2021.[9]
