On my first day as a 12-year-old White House junior host, I had managed to spill a sterling silver bowl of spaghetti sauce in the red room, barely missing the Dolley Madison sofa that First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy had just reupholstered with silk.

More than six decades later, I clearly remember my horror at the prospect of doing even unintentional damage to a sacred place to which I had gained entry because my Irish-born father, Chuck Daly, had made a remarkable ascension from overseeing a fleet of industrial molasses trucks to serving as a special assistant to President John F. Kennedy.

Now comes word that President Donald Trump is demolishing the entire East Wing of the White House to make room for a $300 million, 90,000 square foot “big beautiful ballroom.” I called Edward Lengel, fo

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