Treasury Secretary Mnuchin defends decision to stay on Trump cabinet

Gregory Korte | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin gave an extraordinary defense of his decision to remain in President Trump's cabinet on Saturday, saying Trump does not believe that neo-Nazis are morally equivalent to peaceful protest groups.

Mnuchin's letter came in response to a plea from more than 300 of his Yale University classmates, who urged him on Friday to immediately resign from his post as Treasury secretary "in protest of President Trump’s support of Nazism and white supremacy."

"I don’t believe the allegations against the president are accurate, and I believe that having highly talented men and women in our country surrounding the president in his administration should be reassuring to you and all the American people," Mnuchin wrote to his Yale Class of 1985 classmates. "As long as I am Treasury secretary I will do the best job I can for the American people and provide the best advice I can to the president.”

Standing to Trump's right during a Tuesday press conference at Trump Tower, Mnuchin quite literally found himself in the middle of the Charlottesville, Va., controversy as the president defended the right-wing protests. Trump said not all those marching with neo-Nazis and white nationalists were racists, and appeared to equally condemn what he called the "alt-left" movement for provoking the violence that left one counter-protester dead.

"As someone who is Jewish, I believe I understand the long history of violence and hatred against the Jews (and other minorities) and circumstances that give rise to these sentiments and actions," Mnuchin wrote in his response.

"While I find it hard to believe I should have to defend myself on this, or the president, I feel compelled to let you know that 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."

But Mnuchin also suggested that the cultural forces giving rise to the so-called "alt-right" movement "are far more complicated than we are led to believe by the mass media."

"If it were so simple, such actions would have been taken by other presidents, governors, and mayors, long before President Trump was elected by the American people," he wrote.

Mnuchin, 54, was an early supporter of the Trump campaign after a career as an investment banker, hedge fund manager and movie producer. As Treasury secretary, he is fifth in the line of succession to the presidency.

In his letter, Mnuchin also promised to use the resources of the Treasury Department to "to combat and stop terrorist financing domestically and internationally."