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WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is defending President Donald Trump’s response to the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, and rejecting calls from a group of his Yale University classmates that he resign from the administration in protest.

In a statement issued by the Treasury Department, Mnuchin said “the president in no way, shape or form believes that neo-Nazi and other hate groups who endorse violence are equivalent to groups that demonstrate in peaceful and lawful ways.”

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Mnuchin said that “as someone who is Jewish, I believe I understand the long history of violence and hatred against the Jews” and other minorities.

Mnuchin’s statement was in response to a letter signed by more than 300 Yale alums urging Mnuchin to resign. Mnuchin graduated from Yale in 1985.

The letter to Mnuchin, which was posted online said, “We call upon you, as our friend, our classmate, and as a fellow American, to resign in protest of President Trump’s support of Nazism and white supremacy. We know you are better than this, and we are counting on you to do the right thing.”