We were told it would be  big. Huge. But seeing it makes it brutally real. Trump’s ballroom, whether necessary or not, has dwarfed the White House and forever changed the nature of the iconic structure in a way that can only be described as Trumpian.

Put aside the plans for the interior to be gaudy enough to make a sheik blush, resplendent in Trump’s beloved goldish doodads. Put aside that it sits next to Trump’s marble helipad, which had to incorporate the presidential seal lest anyone be confused who gets to park his copter there. The ballroom is an architectural travesty in itself for what it has done to the White House proper.

Trump may not care, peacock that he is, that his structure overwhelms the building for which he is merely a steward until his term ends. Not only does he believe that he possesses the most special justification as a “master builder” to construct whatever strikes his fancy, but it creates a legacy that will forever be know, and likely called, the Trump Ballroom. Trump desperately seeks a legacy, lest he be forgotten or remembered as the vulgar, deceitful, ignorant narcissist who nearly wrecked a republic.

But should a nation be slave to Trump’s “aesthetic” judgment? Congress never approved this construction, not that the current Congress would have ever done anything to make Trump sad. Trump never campaigned on building a ballroom that would dwarf the White House, so there’s no comfort to be found in the oft-cited “this is what I voted for.” The American people never approved of this ballroom, with almost two-thirds of Americans disapproving.

When the East Wing of the White House was demolished in the middle of the night, people were upset. Trump said he wouldn’t do it, but little that Trump says means much. But the East Wing wasn’t the iconic part, and once it was gone, it was gone.

Now there is an actual physical skeleton of a building on the grounds of the White House. There is no longer any possibility of ignoring what Trump has done, and what it means to a building that wasn’t his to ruin. Yet here we are. Can anything be done about it? Well sure, the ballroom can be demolished by the next steward, but should it be?

If not, does that mean that the White House, built in contrast to the frivolity of Versailles to be a relatively humble residence to reflect the nature of a democracy with a public servant performing the function of executing the laws enacted by Congress, is lost in perpetuity? Has Trump found the loophole to turn White House into the palace fit for an imperial president?