A football field, including the end zones, measures over 57,000 square feet. President Trump’s proposed state ballroom would be 90,000 square feet.

Is there any conceivable justification for having a room more than a third larger than the size of a football field to host state dinners?

That the president would want such a grand structure is no surprise. Trump’s personal and real estate aesthetic has always leaned toward the bigger and the flashier.

But tacking on a structure of this size to the White House is probably not only unnecessary — the plan runs counter to the underlying logic of how George Washington and the founding generation thought about the presidential grounds and the residence.

When Pierre-Charles L’Enfant proposed his initial plan for what would become the District of Columbia, he outlined a footprint for what he labeled the “

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