The Man Who Told the President His Toy Was Too Big - and Got Fired for It

Donald Trump has fired someone again. Not for incompetence, not for disloyalty, but for something far worse: architecture. James McCrery II, the man who had been tasked with shaping Trump’s personal palace dream inside the White House, actually dared to tell the president that the planned ballroom was too large. Too large - not for just any building, but larger than the White House itself. A detail that would be a problem for ordinary people but, for Trump, was merely a matter of style.

McCrery had warned that a ballroom the size of a mid-range shopping mall was “unnecessary.” Trump, on the other hand, believed that “unnecessary” was a left-wing term. After all, he had spent his entire life building things bigger than whatever had come before - casinos, egos, problems. So why not expand a government building that had managed perfectly fine for centuries without an XXL extension? According to reports, the dispute escalated when McCrery remarked that a room swallowing the entire West Wing might affect the daily routines of a few people. Staff, press, cabinet - minor details. Trump is said to have declared that it was “not his problem if people run out of space.” The president planned to build “the most beautiful ballroom in the world,” and who would want to work there anyway.

The architect had to go. A man who spent years restoring historic buildings was pushed aside because he would not assure the president that the White House was essentially a hobby basement that could be expanded at will. Trump immediately chose a replacement architect whose primary qualification seemed to be never saying no - even when the structural integrity cries out. That is how things work in Washington now: anyone who tells Trump that two plus two equals four is out the door faster than someone who promises him the Oval Office can be inflated to the size of a football field. Reality in this administration has only two options: bend - or leave.

McCrery chose to leave. And Trump chose something much closer to his heart than any law: an even bigger room for himself.