Trump’s Ballroom Will Dwarf the White House, Ugly Renderings Show

President Trump’s upcoming ballroom will be bigger than the White House.

Recent renderings obtained by CBS News show that the ballroom—which Trump has been obsessing over for some time now—shows a gaudy, gold-tinged, 90,000-square foot building that looks like it came straight from the Gilded Age. The White House is only 50,000 square feet.

“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,” the White House’s July announcement read. “President Donald J. Trump has expressed his commitment to solving this problem on behalf of future Administrations and the American people.”

The construction project, which began earlier this month, is estimated to cost $200 million, and at this point has been funded by Google, tobacco company R.J. Reynolds, Booz Allen Hamilton, Palantir, and Lockheed Martin.

“They’ve wanted a ballroom at the White House for more than 150 years, but there’s never been a president that’s good at ballrooms,” Trump said in July.

In September, when asked about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Trump immediately pivoted to the ballroom.

“And by the way, right there you see all the trucks; they just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House,” he said. “Which is something they’ve been trying to get as you know for about 150 years, and it’s gonna be a beauty, it’ll be an absolutely magnificent structure.”

As many have pointed out, this kind of project is what Trump actually cares about. He’s more concerned with projecting opulence and pomp than he is about governing. The White House is traditionally considered “the people’s house.” Now there’ll be a massive ballroom next to it that “the people” will likely never step foot in, unless they have a couple hundred million dollars to throw at it. Above all, this ballroom shows that Trump really wants the White House to be just another Mar-a-Lago.