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Steven Okun

US President Donald Trump has appointed Nick Adams, the Australian-American social media influencer and self-styled “alpha male”, as special presidential envoy for American tourism, exceptionalism and values.
“I look forward to serving as America’s brand ambassador, bringing the message of America’s excellence to the entire world,” Adams wrote on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. “With America 250, the Fifa World Cup and the Olympics coming up, the world needs to be reminded of all we have to offer.”
He’s right the world needs reminding. He has the diagnosis correct, but his prescription is backwards. Brand America has taken a beating since January 2025 with tariffs on partners and allies and an immigration policy hostile to foreigners. The joint war with Israel against Iran and the economic pain it brings to Asia worsens the damage.
This year, US embassies across the Asia-Pacific are asking both US and foreign companies – now absorbing the economic fallout of the Iran conflict – to fund themed spectacles from snow and ice sculptures in Hokkaido to a rodeo and a Rockefeller Centre-style Christmas tree in Singapore.
Even before it launched the war, the United States was not reading the room. Now, continuing to push for donations in this geopolitical and economic environment would be even more damaging.
Trump’s “America first” trade policy, the treatment of nations who once considered themselves to be US partners and the choice of spectacle over substance for the US’ 250th anniversary celebrations are eroding Brand America across the region. The Iran conflict pours accelerant on a fire already burning.


New polling from Blackbox Research, conducted last month across Singapore and Malaysia, puts the damage in stark terms. Approval for the US-Israel strikes on Iran sits below 20 per cent in both countries. Nearly two-thirds of Singaporeans now view the US less favourably than before the conflict began.
The public doesn’t buy the US security rationale for launching the war. Across both countries, people read this as Trump’s war of choice. The fears that follow are economic rather than ideological: higher energy prices and slower growth. This is a bill the region expects to pay for a war it did not choose and will not bring it any benefits.
Governments across Asia are asking citizens to do everything they can to help increasingly scarce oil supplies last, including shorter showers, charging phones during the day and running some appliances only on weekends. Schools in several countries are being shut on rotating schedules to reduce energy consumption.
This is how the conflict looks like from the receiving end: households running cold showers, classrooms going dark, coal burning to keep the lights on. Every one of those moments damages Brand America for a long time to come.


None of this came out of nowhere. Trade policy had already done damage to Brand America before the conflict began. Blackbox’s SensingSG 2025 data found one in three Singaporeans had already cut spending on US products, with 44 per cent planning to avoid American goods going forward. The beneficiaries are Chinese brands such as BYD, Luckin Coffee and Labubu.
The Iran conflict did not create that shift – it accelerated it. The Trump administration’s behaviour is cracking the foundation of alliances that took decades to build. Large parts of the public in Singapore and Malaysia describe US behaviour as arrogant or hypocritical. Only 17 to 18 per cent still see the US as a global protector. China, meanwhile, commands the confidence of more than half of respondents as a viable peacemaker, a role the US once held almost uncontested.
The US does not have a brand problem. It has a core problem, especially with its war with Iran. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has called on all parties to “exercise utmost self-restraint” and return to dialogue. Even in Japan – one of Washington’s closest treaty allies – seven in 10 people now say ties with the US are fraying.
US partners cannot afford to fully abandon it. The US will remain indispensable to the region, both for its market and as a necessary offshore balancer. But across the region, governments and their citizens are losing confidence in it.

Adams correctly points out that the world needs reminding of what America has to offer. First, though, the US government needs to remind itself what it offers. Asia needs no reminders of US economic importance or military strength, but the US needs to understand the cost its decisions impose on others. No brand ambassador delivers that today.
Trump and his administration decided this year that they would solicit large donations from US and foreign businesses to organise a series of marquee events to celebrate 250 years of American independence. Considering the economic hardship hitting much of the region, those plans must be abandoned.
Instead, go back to holding just one event. Solicit only from American companies with limited exceptions. The scale of any event must reflect prevailing economic conditions. Hosting a rodeo or a Rockefeller Centre Christmas tree lighting across a region managing an energy crisis is not reading the room.
Pivoting from extravagance to reality will signal that someone understands the new geopolitical reality. No one can fix the damage done to Brand America any time soon, but start with baby steps. The US cannot celebrate its way out of a credibility crisis, either in the US or abroad.


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Opinion

World Opinion

News

Diplomacy

Asia

Lavishly funded celebrations will not fly in Asian countries struggling to get by and increasingly sceptical of Trump’s America


Lavishly funded celebrations will not fly in Asian countries struggling to get by and increasingly sceptical of Trump’s America.


US-Israel war on Iran

Asean

US-Asean relations

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Why crisis-hit Asia is unlikely to embrace Trump’s America 250 party

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Lavishly funded celebrations will not fly in Asian countries struggling to get by and increasingly sceptical of Trump’s America

Lavishly funded celebrations will not fly in Asian countries struggling to get by and increasingly sceptical of Trump’s America