The American public is...

Here are three other threads; there are a lot of discussions about this subject.

related discussion: Group nouns

Discussion deleted

related discussion: singular/plural

Basically, if you view collective noun as a single entity - and with public you usually do - then it's singular. If you view it as a mass of individuals, then the verb is plural. The perspective can change within a single sentence, though stylistically this isn't good.

The crowd is pretty unruly but eventually go their separate ways. [First it's a single entity that exhibits a particular behavior, but then the individuals who make up that entity do different things.]

Are you really sure you want the American public to be 'outrageous', or do you perhaps mean 'outraged'. Of course if it is some hate polemic your sentence is fine.

Actually, I think there is an AE/BE difference in these cases. For "collective" nouns, AE= singular, BE=plural.

Agree with Todd. There seems to be a difference here between BE and AE. I would make the translation accordingly.

Garner's:
"public, a COLLECTIVE NOUN, usually takes a singular verb in AmE (public is) and a plural verb in BrE (public are)."

NB: This does not apply to all uses of all collective nouns.

Actually, even in BE, it would be 'is' as the US and the UN are exemptions that are always in the singular form. I'm quite sure about that since I'm a native AE speaker working in a British company. :)

@andy: 100 percent supported - it has to be outraged of course.