Oh. I took it to mean it would be treason, if he said “Gee, thanks for the offer, but I really don’t wanna come play with you 'n your pals . . . gonna go sit in the library 'n read books”, to a “request” from the POTUS.
Once upon a time it would have been actual treason to refuse a command offered by your Sovereign, in the Old Country. Not since the glorious revolution, of course.
