26 April—It appears there was somewhat of a kerfuffle last night at the Washington Hilton Hotel, outside the ballroom where the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner was being held.

As a totally irrelevant point of information, the International Ballroom at the Washington Hilton is about 30,000 square feet of pillarless 230-foot-by-130-foot (by 30-foot high) expanse that can accommodate just shy of 2,700 banqueters. It’s about a quarter of the hotel’s 118,000-square-foot meeting space.

For comparison, Donald Trump’s gilded DC glitz palace currently under construction on the White House grounds will likely be just shy of 90,000 square feet of total floor space. Of course that dwarfs the 55,000 square feet of the main building, known as the Executive Residence, but who cares? Specs of the new inappropriate and vulgar monstrosity haven’t been published, but Trump’s big beautiful ballroom is rumored to be 22,000 feet of pillarless 200-foot-long expanse and 40 feet high. Simple arithmetic makes the room’s width 120 feet. It’s intended to accommodate only 1,000 banqueters, rather than the 2,000 you’d expect, based on 73 percent of the Hilton ballroom’s area, so either the tables will be bigger or there’ll be more room between tables for wait staff, dancing, and fighting.

Outside of immense domes and cathedral ceilings, Trump’s 40-foot ballroom ceiling is exceptionally and excessively (of course) high. The world’s biggest ballroom is at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas. Where else would it be? And there are actually two, each about 110,000 square feet, 299 by 360 in pillarless dimension, but with only 30-foot-high ceilings.

One wonders why Trump didn’t go bigger. Or biggest. And most beautiful.

Back to the incident at the DC Hilton last night, then, why is it assumed that Cole Allen, the schmuck carrying the guns and knives, was out to get Trump? If he was, he deserves thanks and credit for trying. And sympathy.

But does everything have to be about Donald Trump? Think about it. Besides being full of Trump’s detestable flunkies, the International Ballroom last night was full of journalists, many of whom—regardless of their political inclination—are every bit as loathsome as Trump and his coterie and wouldn’t be missed either.

The Secret Service was on the job, of course, and one agent got shot in his bullet-proof plastron. Not that it matters, but unlike many federal government employees Secret Service operatives are being paid during the partial shutdown.

In all events, better luck next time?