Everybody knows about President Donald Trump’s ballroom. We saw the bulldozers tear down the East Wing of the White House, the many renderings of what the new structure is going to look like. Each version getting comically bigger, those staircases on the side that one can only imagine were generated by ChatGPT, leading to nowhere.

It’s one of many vanity projects Trump has taken on since being inaugurated last January. He’s proposed a 250-foot arch in front of Arlington National Cemetery, redoing the reflecting pool, and even adding his face to passports and coins. While some of these are easily reversible with the next president, Trump is trying to make a statement of sorts.

“He’s really interested in the bragging rights of the moment,” said Michael Scherer, a journalist at the Atlantic. “President Trump only has four years in his second term, and he wants to get a lot done.”

On a recent episode of What Next, guest host Rob Gunther spoke to Scherer about Trump’s love of injecting his own face, name, and aesthetic everywhere. This transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Rob Gunther: Of all these projects that Trump seems most jazzed about, the ballroom is constantly in the headlines. Tell me when this started.

Michael Scherer: It was a few months into the administration. Back then, it was going to be entirely privately funded. He talked about raising money, and he had fundraisers at the White House. It was an easier thing to fundraise for because he could raise money in tax-deductible donations, which is different than a political donation. The companies that like to show they’re big fans of Trump and wanted to win his favor gave lots of money and were able to take tax deductions on seven-figure checks.

I remember the first discussions were that they could do it for about $200 million. Now it’s upwards of $400 million. We don’t know if it’ll stay there. He keeps saying it’s under budget. No matter how high the number goes, he says we’re still under budget. There have been a lot of additions to the design. He’s basically gone as big as he possibly can.

The latest development is that Republicans in the Senate have begun saying that the taxpayers should pay; even though you’ve raised hundreds of millions of dollars for........

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