The US can go for DEI. You must butterfly this away including the psyche that lead US to court room:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_Palmas_Case
The US can also push for North Borneo by right of Sultanate of Sulu. The primary reason why Philippines pushed for North Borneo was due to F.B. Harrison.
Making US psyche as aggressive like in 1890s, more Theodore Roosevelt type presidents.
North Borneo was not claimed through the annexation of Sulu to the Philippines; that was how the Philippines maintain their claim.
It was through a lease arranged by the US Consul to Brunei (Charles Lee Moses) with the Sultans of Brunei & Suluto the sum total of territory in North Borneo. Moses then transferred the lease to Joseph Torrey who assumed the title of Rajah of Ambong and Maroodoo. The American colony at Kimanis (Ellena) lasted for a year before folding. From the (likely embellished) reports of the sole eyewitness to the colony along with a few other records, Moses and others got along with the natives fairly well and made a point of attending many various native events (weddings, etc).
However, the colony soon fell into debt that Torrey couldn't repay, and he and Moses fell into conflict that soon resulted in the end of the colony. (Pirate raids were involved). As such, the lease then passed on to the American Trading Company in Hong Kong and eventually ended up in the hand of the British. The rest is history.
Granted, this could be a good flashpoint for an eventual earlier Spanish-American war: the English translation of the lease gave the US the lease over Balabac and Palawan islands via a transfer from the Sultan of Sulu. These, of course, belong to Spain.
So, have a more competent colonial manager acquire the lease (rather than a Consul trying a get rich scheme) that has an accommodating attitude to the populace (as was reportedly shown OTL) might be able to create an economic colony.
Of course, the reason for the lease in the first place was because the Sultan of Brunei desired American protection against Sarawak. He thought that he had acquired that through the lease, but Moses acted on his own. To get it to be anything
but an economic colony in the first few years would require a change in Washington's priorities (or, at least, a less exhausting Civil War) would probably be required for it to become much larger. So, to that end, you could see a multipolar Brunei coming into existence. (Sarawak, Brunei, Ambong & Maroodoo, a little sliver of Sulu, and Dutch Borneo) Or you could see Brunei subsumed between Sarawak and Ambong & Maroodoo if the latter colony manages to establish itself with
any sort of support... or just the ambitions of a charismatic adventurer.