Larry Kudlow, the former economist in the Reagan administration who also advised Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, said Trump is not a white supremacist and business leaders still support the president’s economic agenda.

“To equate Trump with the KKK marching with fire to burn down black churches or anything else – it’s just way out of context,” Kudlow said on CNBC. “He’s not that man. He’s not saying those things.”

Kudlow spoke a day after President Trump defended his response to racially charged protests last weekend, saying both sides were to blame for the clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia. His remarks contradicted his statement on Monday that singled out white supremacists for the violent clashes that left one person dead.

Kudlow said the president should have focused his remarks on infrastructure, which was the original intention of Trump’s press conference on Tuesday.

“I do not believe Donald Trump is a hater. I do not believe he is catering to any of these awful hate groups. I don’t see moral equivalence here,” Kudlow said.

Several company leaders, including the chief executives of Merck, Under Armour and Intel, stepped down from Trump’s business-advisory council after the president was slow to blame the white supremacists for the violence.

As criticism mounted from businesses, Trump on Wednesday disbanded the White House council on manufacturing and the Strategic and Policy Forum. The purpose of the two groups was mostly symbolic, created in the early days of the Trump presidency to provide advice on economic policy.

Just because CEOs were critical of the president’s response to Charlottesville doesn’t mean they don’t support his pro-business agenda of tax cuts and job growth, Kudlow said.

“I don’t think the business community has left his plan,” Kudlow said. “For various reasons, a percentage of CEOs decided to leave his council. OK, fine, they’re following their conscience and they’re following their stakeholders. Fine, these things happen.”

He said the president needs to make another speech condemning white supremacist groups.

Kudlow is the radio host of "The Larry Kudlow Show" and author of "JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity," written with Brian Domitrovic and published by Portfolio.

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