Pompeo Goes Full White Supremacist in Last Day On the Job

The man who has served as the president’s chief foreign policy advisor for just shy of three years, who has negotiated with foreign powers on behalf of the nation, said publicly Tuesday that multiculturalism is “not who America is.”

With a little more than one day left on the job, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flooded Twitter with self-stroking accolades and revisionist messages, something he’s fairly consistently done since election results came in. Buried in his barrage of more than 30 self-righteous posts was a gem highlighting the racist underbelly that has defined the Trump administration.

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. pic.twitter.com/Mu97xCgxfS

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 19, 2021

Britannica defines multiculturalism as “the view that cultures, races, and ethnicities, particularly those of minority groups, deserve special acknowledgment of their differences within a dominant political culture.”

Britannica adds:

“Multiculturalism seeks the inclusion of the views and contributions of diverse members of society while maintaining respect for their differences and withholding the demand for their assimilation into the dominant culture.”

While logistics of multicultural societies are fodder for debate, the basic premise is widely considered a cornerstone of evolved American values. The “salad bowl” and “melting pot” metaphors derive from the very concept of multiculturalism. 

Pompeo’s statement goes way beyond dog whistle — his assertion that a multicultural nation distorts “our glorious founding” is a big, fat racist bullhorn aimed at whipping scared white people into a frenzy. He’s taken a page directly from Trump’s book in that regard, and the events of Jan. 6 clearly illustrate the dangers of that particular frenzied crowd.

It was an odd, though not surprising, statement to make in the final hours on the job. The tweet attracted some support from fellow bigots, but the vast majority of replies served as deserved backlash. Many people were quick to point out that Pompeo himself is just a second-generation American, with his grandfather born in Italy.

In a way, Pompeo’s racist comment was the best possible reminder that elections have consequences. There’s nothing like a little white supremacy to excite the masses about Wednesday’s changing of the guard.