WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is rejecting suggestions that the United States is a "banana republic" following the assault on the Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump. It's a highly unusual defense to criticism that hasn't previously warranted an riposte from America's top diplomat.

Pompeo is one of Trump's strongest supporters in the Cabinet and has unstintingly defended him since Trump's loss to President-elect Joe Biden in November's election.

He denounced criticism of the U.S. in the wake of the attack on the Capitol as "slander" and decried questions about its democracy in a series of tweets from his personal account late Thursday. He followed up on Friday from his official account, calling the United States the "greatest country on earth" and extolling "American goodness."

Pompeo wrote that the comparison "reveals a faulty understanding of banana republics and of democracy in America."