Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who commanded the Army's Infantry Center and was later responsible for the training of Iraqi forces, railed against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

"Disgusting performance by @SecPompeo," Eaton said on Twitter.

Pompeo graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1986 — a fact that was not lost on Eaton, who graduated from the college in 1972.

"What is wrong with West Point class of 86? Who mentored you?" Eaton added. "What happened to the West Point Honor Code in your class? America is very badly served by these men."

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A retired two-star US Army general rated Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's performance as "disgusting" and described Defense Secretary Mark Esper as a "lightweight coward."

Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who commanded the Army's Infantry Center and was later responsible for the training of Iraqi forces, railed against the two cabinet officials in the Trump administration amid some heavy criticism in recent days. Eaton now works as an adviser to the progressive VoteVets political action committee.

"Disgusting performance by @SecPompeo," Eaton said on Twitter. "Lightweight coward @EsperDoD."

Both Esper and Pompeo graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1986 — a fact that was not lost on Eaton, who graduated from the college in 1972. Some graduates of the class of '86 call themselves the "West Point Mafia" because of their senior positions in the Trump administration, according to Politico.

"What is wrong with West Point class of 86? Who mentored you?" Eaton added in his tweet. "What happened to the West Point Honor Code in your class? America is very badly served by these men."

Cadets at Michie Stadium for their graduation ceremony at West Point. Michelle Eberhart/US Army

The military academy's honor code, which reads, "A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do," is known as the "bedrock of character development" and drilled into the cadets during their four years of training.

Pompeo has recently come under scrutiny after a contentious interview with a reporter on Friday. In an interview with NPR's "All Things Considered" cohost Mary Louise Kelly, Pompeo evaded a series of questions about former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and ended up cutting the conversation short.

Pompeo later "shouted at me for about the same amount of time as the [9-minute] interview itself had lasted," Kelly told NPR, adding that "he was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine."

"He asked, 'Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?' He used the F-word in that sentence and many others," Kelly said.

In an official statement from the State Department, Pompeo said Kelly had "lied to me, twice ... in setting up our interview and, then again yesterday, in agreeing to have our post-interview conversation off the record."

Kelly said she did not agree to an off-the-record stipulation and provided email exchanges setting up the interview to support her claims.

Pompeo has been accused of obfuscating his dealings with President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, one of the political figures embroiled in the Senate impeachment trial.

Pompeo previously downplayed his association with a damning whistleblower complaint, in which Trump was accused of conditioning US military aid to Ukraine on a state-sponsored investigation into his political rivals. Pompeo later confirmed he was one of the participants of the phone call between the two leaders.

"Most politicians can be evasive; it's part of the parlance of politics," NPR host Scott Simon wrote in an opinion column in October. "But Mike Pompeo is a trained soldier who conducts the foreign policy of the United States."

"In the weeks ahead, Secretary Pompeo will be asked to comply with subpoenas and requests for records," Simon added. "You may wonder if he will use his skills to dance, slide and misdirect, or be as honest and direct as the West Point honor code he knows by heart."