A gaggle of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s classmates at Yale College urged him in a brand new letter to rethink his position “in facilitating the Trump administration’s intended transformation” of the United States “into an authoritarian state.”

“Scott, please take a moment to step back, look down the road a piece, and think hard about whether you want to be responsible for enabling the descent of America into fascism,” says the letter, which is dated Wednesday.

“Be brave. Stand up for what you know to be right and be a voice of reason in the midst of this insanity,” the letter says.

It argues that “so many” of the actions of President Donald Trump and his second administration are unconstitutional and undermine the ideas of democracy.

As of Friday, 140 members of the Yale Class of 1984 have signed the web letter to Bessent, a member of that class. He’s additionally a former adjunct professor on the college, the place he taught financial historical past.

The signatories embody legal professionals, CEOs, journalists, playwrights, a pastor, school professors, a farmer, and social staff.

The letter to Bessent says that he, as a Political Science main at Yale, is aware of “that the three branches of the U.S. government are meant to act as equal partners, providing checks and balances on each other to prevent the kind of power grab the executive branch is currently perpetrating.”

The missive then ticks off a listing of examples of what it says are the Trump administration’s efforts “to usurp the power vested in the judicial and legislative branches … for their own personal aggrandizement, wealth, and power.”

The examples cited embody giving billionaire Elon Musk and his “DOGE cohorts” intensive entry to the personal information of tens of millions of People; “punitive attacks on independent news media, universities, citizens, judges and other governmental employees merely because they disagree with the administration;” and “illegal seizure and incarceration of people in violation of our immigration laws and the due process required by our Constitution.”

Bessent, in a press release to CNBC, mentioned:

“It is equal parts odd and sad that a group of people, most of whom I have never met, feel they have standing in my life choices due to a tenuous overlap from 40 years ago.”

“How very brave of these people to wage their campaign from behind a keyboard rather than to engage in the real-life political process. They should look inward, exercise some agency, and come out from behind their desks—like I did—to get involved in the 2028 electoral cycle.”

“These are the same close-minded progressives who have sought to undermine President Trump at every turn. But to paraphrase President Teddy Roosevelt, ‘It is not the critic who counts… the credit belongs to the man in the arena.’”

“President Trump is the man in the arena. And the American people elected him—not these critics. Being part of the Trump Administration and serving the American people is the honor of my lifetime.”

Catherine Teegarden, a 1984 Class alumna, informed CNBC that she despatched an identical letter, additionally signed by fellow class members, by way of U.S. Mail to Bessent on the Treasury Division in March, however acquired no reply.

The brand new letter, which added some particulars of actions by the administration since March, was posted on the category’ Fb web page, the place individuals might signal it.

“My initiative for banding together was just to amplify our voices,” mentioned Teegarden, a New York resident who retired in 2023 after 30 years working an architectural schooling program.

“I know there were other people like myself who felt somewhat hopeless about what was going on in our government,” she mentioned.

The letter echoes one despatched in August 2017 to then-Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin from greater than 350 of his fellow members of Yale’s Class of 1985.

That letter referred to as on Mnuchin to resign, arguing he had a “moral obligation” to take action after Trump blamed violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on not solely the organizers however on counterprotesters as properly. Mnuchin rejected that demand. 

The brand new letter to Bessent additionally cites “blatant conflicts of curiosity such because the Trumps’ meme cash and Trump Media and Know-how Group‘s investment accounts which are poised to move in sync with the administration’s whimsical tariff decisions.”

“While the global economic chaos this administration has caused may have set off the loudest alarm bells, the unlawful manner in which they are conducting official business at home should be equally alarming to you as Treasury Secretary,” the letter says.

“Your sworn oath to uphold the Constitution as you manage the nation’s finances demands that you do everything in your power to stop this administration’s unprecedented attacks on our democracy.”

David Kallick, one of many individuals who signed the letter, in an interview, mentioned he did so as a result of “I’m really concerned about due process and” different protections “in our Constitution that are being set aside by the president’s actions.”

“There are people within the administration and without who should know better,” mentioned Kallick, who’s director of the Immigration Analysis Initiative, a assume tank.

Kallick, who mentioned he didn’t know Bessent at Yale, mentioned that the chance from Trump’s actions up to now is “very real.”

“I think we’re seeing some actions that are starkly authoritarian, or, I should say, starkly autocratic, and I don’t know how far that could go,” he mentioned. “If people like us and him [Bessent] don’t stand up and say ‘Enough is enough,’ there is a real danger … of further sliding into an autocratic government.”

Teegarden, the alumna who organized the letter, mentioned quite a few individuals declined to signal it “because they were worried about how that would affect their life.”

“A lot of people are scared to put their name out there, because of retribution,” mentioned Teegarden, who additionally mentioned she didn’t know Bessent at Yale.

Teegarden mentioned different individuals requested her why the letter doesn’t name on Bessent to resign.

“To me, that doesn’t really solve the problem,” she mentioned. “We need someone there who is rational, who will speak up, to be that voice of reason.”

She mentioned she hopes the letter will make Bessent contemplate his position within the Trump administration and push again in opposition to what she mentioned are violations of constitutional and institutional norms.

“Why is he selling out? This was kind of my thinking about this,” Teegarden mentioned, including that she hopes “we plant a little nugget of concern” in Bessent’s thoughts.

“It’s really about the illegality of it all,” she mentioned. “And he should know better.”

Hank Copeland, one other Yale grad who signed the letter, mentioned, “I don’t know Scott personally, but I’m willing to bet he doesn’t want to live in an autocracy.”

“He knows autocracy stifles human rights and shuts down the give and take that improve lives and make life interesting and make an economy dynamic,” mentioned Copeland, an Indianapolis resident who runs a small tech firm. “Eventually, rigid, top-down societies ossify and fail.”

Requested what he needed the letter to attain, Copeland mentioned, “On the one hand, we’re whistling in a hurricane, and some classmates cite futility as their reason for not signing.”

“On the other hand, plenty of important acts in life are purely symbolic — exchanging rings or flying a flag or attending a funeral,” he mentioned.

“We do these symbolic things to remind ourselves and others what we care about,” he mentioned.

— CNBC’s Russell Leung contributed to this story.

Learn the total letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent beneath: