🏛️ The Sad White House Reality
• The East Room, its largest interior, fits only about 350 people standing.
• The entire Executive Residence covers just 5,100 m², functioning as a home rather than a formal place to greet Heads of State.
• When guest lists grow, Washington relies on South Lawn tents or rents the National Building Museum.
🏯 The Beijing Benchmark
• The Great Hall of the People spans 171,000 m², about 35 times the White House.
• Its main auditorium seats 10,000.
• The State Banquet Hall covers 7,000 m², serving 5,000 guests in one sitting.
💡 What Trump Wants
• A 90,000 ft² (8,300 m²) East Wing extension, seating up to 1,000 guests.
• Marketed as a ballroom, but intended as a showpiece of scale and prestige.
• The first major architectural addition to the White House in more than a century.
⚖️ Symbolism vs. Scale
• The White House was designed for restraint: small rooms and republican modesty.
• The Great Hall was built for spectacle: vast, centralised and commanding.
• The Ballroom Extension would blur those traditions: a home becoming a stage, a president seeking to restore America’s sense of monumental presence.
