Alan Seeger, a Harvard graduate, had shortly passed his 28th birthday when he died, serving in the French Foreign Legion. There is a monument honoring him at the Place des Etats Unis in Paris, and honoring other Americans who fell defending our oldest ally. He was not the only son of privilege who served—there are many names on the walls of memorial chapels in America’s finest universities to confirm that.

But the main thing is those two last lines: “And I to my pledged word am true / I shall not fail that rendezvous.”

Alan Seeger and the soldiers and Marines of Belleau Wood were young men; Donald Trump is an old man. They took a pledge to serve faithfully, even at the risk of their lives; Donald Trump took a pledge to discharge the office of commander-in-chief, a similarly unlimited oath; they faced shot and shell; Donald Trump faced damp. They dutifully made their rendezvous. To his eternal shame, Donald Trump failed his.