As you probably have heard, President Donald Trump wants an enormous ballroom built to replace the East Wing of the White House. It will be expensive, is probably illegal, may cause problematic entanglements because of solicitation of private donations, and is disliked by the public.

Why is this even happening? According to the White House website,

For 150 years, Presidents, Administrations, and White House Staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex that can hold substantially more guests than currently allowed. President Donald J. Trump has expressed his commitment to solving this problem on behalf of future Administrations and the American people.

Apparently, this is an urgent problem that even the likes of Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and Calvin Coolidge bemoaned, yet, recent presidents Bush, Obama, and Biden did not seem to advocate publicly for a solution to this 150 years of presidential "longing." Neither did Trump during his first term or during the campaign for his most recent term. Such a huge problem only came to the forefront of his public attention once he was safely elected and focused on honoring His royal self in every way he can.

More on the problems necessitating this expensive build:

The White House is one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in the world, yet the White House is currently unable to host major functions honoring world leaders and other countries without having to install a large and unsightly tent approximately 100 yards away from the main building entrance. The White House State Ballroom will be a much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of ornately designed and carefully crafted space, with a seated capacity of 650 people — a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.

I suppose it is too much as citizens in a republic to imagine that the president can carry out his constitutional duties if he has to host events in a tent and not a lavish 90,000 square foot ballroom that will surely be gilded in gold and can fit hundreds of people. At least we can rest easy knowing that neither Trump nor anyone else will try to name the ballroom after him.

For reasons unclear, an alleged assassination attempt at a non-governmental event at a non-governmental venue has also become a primary rationale for Trump, the Justice Department, and his supporters to justify the building of the ballroom.

This all truly began in October when Trump initiated the demolition of the East Wing without any authorization from Congress or following other established protocols. After the the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States sued the Trump Administration, a federal judge ordered that construction of the ballroom must be halted because it is illegal.

Of course, it will be very expensive. Initially, Trump said the ballroom would cost $200 million. But the costs ballooned to $400 million.

Trump repeatedly asserted that the costs would be paid by private donations, which comes with all sorts of risks (corruption, bribery, crony capitalism, etc.). Now, however, Congress is considering spending a billion dollars of tax-payer money on it. Apparently, this money would be for the Secret Service to handle "security infrastructure." The money would not be spent on "non-security elements," which would apparently still be footed by private donations.

Meanwhile, the the US government's debt has surpassed the entire economic output of the nation and inflation seems poised to hit 4%. The public is not happy. Only 28% of people surveyed support the ballroom project. Has there ever been a project that better embodied the spirit of Marie Antoinette's apocryphal "Let them eat cake" comment?

At this point, this project appears to be little more than yet another way for Trump to honor himself and allow him to play the royal role he has seemingly envisioned for himself. Kings hold lavish events. Why shouldn't he? Kings order the building of grand palaces and ballrooms. Why shouldn't he?

The ballroom has nearly all of the classic Trump qualities. Royal trappings. Fancy social hosting. Huge amounts of money. No accountability. Skirting the rules. Unilateral decision-making. Increasing costs. Unclear, inconsistent rationales. Judicial opposition. Government coercion and bribery.

All that is left is for Trump to stiff the companies that work on the project.