That he lacks dignity is beyond question.

Love him or hate him, surely most will agree that Trump is the sort of man whose eyes are always and forever on his own prospects more than “the storm of history.” Neither “character” nor “self-discipline” are among his strengths. He is very nearly the opposite of the president whom Pence lauded.

Yesterday, in an article about Michigan’s Hillsdale College and the commencement address that Pence delivered there this year, I argued that the Indiana politician acts in ways that suggest that the morals and behaviors he claims to value most are not actually what he values most.

Lots of Hillsdale stakeholders emailed with similar concerns. And several pointed me to this speech, delivered at Hillsdale College and published in Imprimis, the digest that the institution sends out to alumni and potential donors, among others. Today it serves as a striking illustration of a vast chasm: the chasm separating the qualities that good presidents should possess, as Pence once set them forth, from the qualities of the powerful man whom Pence now publicly praises as a good president.

The dissonances go beyond that single passage. “The Constitution and the Declaration should be on a president’s mind all the time, as the prism through which the light of all question of governance passes,” Pence said. “Though we have—sometimes gradually, sometimes radically—moved away from this, we can move back to it.” Are the Constitution and Declaration always on Trump’s mind?

They are most certainly not.

In another passage Pence spoke of the bully pulpit and its potential for abuse, especially when the president’s words can reach and influence the young. “Is the president, therefore, expected to turn away from this and other easy advantage?” Pence asks. “Yes,” he avers. “Like Harry Truman, who went to bed before the result on election night, he must know when to withdraw, to hold back, and to forgo attention, publicity, or advantage.”

Among all presidents, who would rank last on that metric?

“We serve neither him nor his vision,” Pence said. “It is not his job or his prerogative to redefine custom, law, and beliefs; to appropriate industries; to seize the country, as it were, by the shoulders or by the throat so as to impose by force of theatrical charisma his justice upon 300 million others.” And yet, here Pence is serving a theatrically charismatic man appropriating the micromanagement of industrial policy—and participating himself in a theatrical walkout at an NFL game in an effort to seize the country by the shoulders and impose a vision of what’s proper.

Mike Pence’s flagrant waste of taxpayer money

“You must always be wary,” Pence declared in 2010, “of a president who seems to float upon his own greatness.” Can you think of anyone who does that?

Thank you Adam Levine, The Federalist, in interview on @foxandfriends “Donald Trump is the greatest President our Country has ever seen.” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018

Thank you for all of the nice statements on the Press Conference yesterday. Rush Limbaugh said one of greatest ever. Fake media not happy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

"Donald Trump’s birther event is the greatest trick he’s ever pulled"https://t.co/zvVQnxeiQ9 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2016

"@Dale_Dangler: @realDonaldTrump You will be the greatest president the world has ever seen" Thanks. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2016

In many ways this is the greatest economy in the HISTORY of America and the best time EVER to look for a job! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2018

And Pence’s foreign-policy advice?