President Trump’s Tuesday night veto of a joint resolution pulling U.S. military assistance to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen may not have been a surprise, but the decision doesn’t make it any less disappointing. Trump had the opportunity to become the first president in U.S. history to sign a War Powers Resolution withdrawing the United States from an unauthorized overseas conflict — the sort of groundbreaking moment that would have appealed to his ego and sense of place in history.

Instead, Trump did the easy thing: He threw in his chips with the Saudis yet again, despite the colossal failure Riyadh’s quagmire in Yemen has become. Trump in effect transformed himself into a battering ram for the Saudis, laying on the tracks in order to stop a bipartisan bullet train advocating for a U.S. withdrawal from reaching the station.