Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's departing message to the US is that multiculturalism is 'not who America is'

• The outgoing secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, on Tuesday decried multiculturalism as un-American.

• "Our enemies stoke these divisions because they know they make us weaker," he said.

• Pompeo was excoriated on Twitter for his comments.

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On his last full day as the top US diplomat and just one day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo deemed multiculturalism to be un-American.

"Woke-ism, multiculturalism, all the -isms - they're not who America is. They distort our glorious founding and what this country is all about. Our enemies stoke these divisions because they know they make us weaker," Pompeo said in a tweet.

The US has an extraordinarily diverse population and generally celebrates the hodgepodge of cultures that have helped define it.

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Many on Twitter took issue with Pompeo's words, given that multiculturalism is widely viewed as a central tenet of the US.

This is not the first time Pompeo has decried multiculturalism. In 2015, he cited a sermon before the Kansas Legislature that said: "'America had worshipped other Gods and called it multiculturalism. We'd endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.'"

Pompeo, who is thought to have ambitions of running for president in 2024, has been a controversial secretary of state.

In November, Pompeo became the first US diplomat to visit an Israeli settlement, shattering decades of American policy. His hawkish stance toward Iran helped fuel fears that the Trump administration might provoke a new conflict in the Middle East. The departing secretary of state also garnered a reputation as an antagonist of the media, once berating a veteran reporter for questioning him about Ukraine and asking her to point it out on a map.

Pompeo last week abruptly canceled a final trip to Europe because US allies were reportedly too embarrassed to meet with him following the Capitol siege, which was provoked by President Donald Trump.

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