“They do listen sometimes,” said Muhammad Izuan Ahmad Kasim, a youth leader from the People’s Justice Party who had been among the dozens who marched to the US embassy last July demanding Washington reconsider the appointment.

Adams himself offered a very different gloss, insisting to The Sydney Morning Herald that he had not been passed over but elevated.

“I’ve been promoted from the role of ambassador!” he wrote in a message quoted by regional media, adding that more details would come “this coming week”.

A review of public US Senate records by This Week in Asia showed that Adams’ nomination to Malaysia was returned to the president on January 3 under Senate Rule XXXI, paragraph 6, meaning it was no longer before the Senate for confirmation.