Feud erupts between Trump and architect as POTUS demands even bigger White House ballroom

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump is reportedly butting heads with the new White House ballroom architect because he apparently wants it bigger than the White House itself.

Only someone like Trump could dismiss a 90,000-square-foot ballroom (already bigger than the 55,000-square-foot mansion it’s welded onto) as “too small."

Trump's standoff with White House ballroom architect

Trump, 79, is reportedly duking it out with the very architect he handpicked to design his dream addition. According to four insiders who spoke anonymously to The Washington Post, the president is demanding a bigger, grander structure that could practically swallow the White House whole.

Architect James McCrery II, the man tasked with making the new ballroom, is said to be begging for a little restraint. McCrery reportedly warned that the supersized ballroom threatens to break architecture’s most basic commandment—building an appendage so large it ends up devouring the original. But sources say Trump isn’t buying that argument.

This isn’t the first time staffers have had to pry the president away from a potential White House disaster. In a new book, Republican strategist Scott Jennings recounts how aides had to intervene when Trump floated the idea of hanging an enormously heavy chandelier in the Oval Office. It was reportedly so weighty that it raised fears of structural damage.

Speaking of the model of the massive annex Trump unveiled last month, some experts have pointed out discrepancies like a staircase that leads from the South Lawn straight into a brick wall, and windows so misaligned they appear to open into each other.

Still, a White House official insists all is fine and dandy behind the scenes. “As with any building, there is a conversation between the principal and the architect,” the official said. “All parties are excited to execute on the president’s vision on what will be the greatest addition to the White House since the Oval Office.”

Trump is actively involved in development of WH ballroom

Trump might be turning the People’s House into a monument to his own gilded tastes. Heavy gold trim, massive portraits, and swapping out historic pieces for Trump-centric iconography are all reportedly part of the plan.

Officials privately concede the president is micromanaging the project himself, hosting frequent design meetings and keeping a model of the ballroom on display in the Oval Office. 

The ballroom itself would mark one of the biggest physical changes to the 233-year-old residence, but despite the project’s colossal scale, the administration hasn’t released basic details like the building’s final height. 

Plans suggest the new structure will absorb offices currently housed in the East Wing, while any questions about the emergency bunker beneath it are being waved off due to national security concerns.

Photos obtained by The Washington Post show a construction site already buzzing with activity, fenced off and hidden from public view. While the National Capital Planning Commission must review projects of this magnitude, the ballroom is nowhere on its agenda. White House officials say they’ll file the paperwork at “the appropriate time.”

Architect receives warning letter from his peers

While McCrery battles Trump on the inside, he’s facing heat from the outside too.

According to The Architect’s Newspaper, 13 members of the American Institute of Architects blasted him with a letter last week expressing “some concerns about [his] involvement with the destruction of the East Wing of the White House and the impending design of the New Ballroom to replace the East Wing.”

The signatories even warned McCrery they were notifying him “as a courtesy… prior to submitting any Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct Complaints to the National AIA.”

Back in July, the White House announced that McCrery Architects had been selected because the firm is “well-known for their classical architectural design and based in the nation’s capital.”

McCrery himself was quoted as saying that modern presidents have struggled to host major events because the White House has gone untouched “since President Harry Truman.”

“I am honored that President Trump has entrusted me to help bring this beautiful and necessary renovation to The People’s House, while preserving the elegance of its classical design and historical importance,” he said.