U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wasn’t subtle in expressing his view about the way he was summarily dismissed from his job by President Donald Trump.

Speaking at the State Department, Tillerson received applause for his description of the culture of official Washington:

“ ‘This can be a very mean-spirited town. But you don’t have to choose to participate in that. Each of us gets to choose the person we want to be, the way we want to be treated, and the way we want to treat others.’ ” — Rex Tillerson

The president, of course, announced his decision to terminate Tillerson in a tweet.