My father hated Nazis.

He was a child of World War II, and believed heart and soul in the great cause of ridding the world of them.

I don’t think it had so much to do with the fact his father and uncles fled the Nazis’ allies, Mussolini’s Fascists, leading to the execution of his grandfather.

All right, maybe that was a factor.

I think it was just that Nazis were evil. And he couldn’t stand that.

So when he was a boy, he participated in scrap metal drives that gave away free Brooklyn Dodger tickets – not so much for the tickets, since he was a Yankee fan, as for the fact that he was doing something to beat the Nazis.

He hated the Nazis so much that, as a grown man, he would shout at the Folger’s coffee commercials because he thought – mistakenly – that the actress who played Mrs. Olsen also was a Nazi in a movie made during the war.

“I wouldn’t drink your coffee, you lousy Nazi,” he shouted.

If he were alive, seeing Nazi salutes on TV today would have made him snap out of his living room chair in red-faced anger.

But since he isn’t, I did it for him.

Nazism is vile. Among its satanic tenets are genocide – the too-close-to-being-successful effort to eliminate Judaism from the planet – and terrorism. The elimination of anyone’s right to speak except those who share your disgusting philosophy.

Add Nazis to people waving the ultimate symbol of treason, the Army of Northern Virginia banner widely viewed as the Confederate flag, and you have one side of people who have no concept or respect for this country and all of its 300 million plus people.

That’s the only side Trump needed to condemn today. Not “many sides,” one. Admittedly with several divisions, but still the same crap.

That he can’t is to his shame. That he can’t is a message that these people are just one petitioner among many for the American soul – and that all should be accommodated. Let’s put America first and work it out – that’s basically what Trump said at his golf course.

That’s crap.

There is no accommodating Nazis. There is no accommodating treasonous supporters of slavery. There is no accommodating those who believe being white – and you can add Christian and male, albeit unsaid – makes them superior to any other American.

People voted for Trump to make America great. But today is not a great day for this country. It is a tragedy that the hope of the world is being reduced to a clash of “many sides” by the man sworn to uphold its Constitution.

Speaking for my dad and most of the decent people of the United States, you and the Nazis are both lousy, Trump.