A royal visit to the White House is never complete without... a visit to the Portaloo?
When Donald Trump hosts the King in Washington this April, the US is set to roll out the red carpet for His Majesty with an elaborately decorated large tent on the South Lawn – complete with a portable toilet conveniently stationed outside.
The White House secretary Will Scharf set the less-than-ideal scene during a meeting, which set out plans to tear down the White House’s East Wing to build a $400m (£300m) luxury ballroom.
Large state dinners have been hosted by US presidents in ornate tents on the White House grounds for years.
“I think it’s notable that when the president of the United States of America flies to the United Kingdom, he’s hosted at Windsor Castle,” Mr Scharf told the meeting at the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC).
“When next year the, the King... comes to the United States, more likely than not he will be hosted ... in a tent on the South Lawn with porta-potties.”
The UK laid on a spectacle full of pomp and pageantry for Mr Trump’s unprecedented second state visit to the country in September.
He was driven around Windsor Castle’s estate in the Irish State Coach, before inspecting an honour guard and watching a Red Arrows flypast, followed by a state banquet at the castle.
Shalom Baranes, the architect who took over the White House ballroom project late last year, told the meeting that the room will be approximately 22,000 square feet and designed to accommodate 1,000 seated guests.
Mr Trump at one point had floated having a ballroom that could fit some 1,300 people, but Mr Baranes said the president’s team was not exploring an option to increase the project's size.
The total area of the new East Wing, including two floors and the ballroom, would be slightly more than 89,000 square feet, he said. It will include a two-story colonnade that connects the White House's East Room to the new ballroom.
Mr Baranes said the administration was also considering a one-story addition to the West Wing colonnade “to restore a sense of symmetry” to the overall White House complex.
Opponents of the project have said the extension could dwarf the main mansion and criticised the destruction of the office of the first lady and a movie theatre.
But a federal judge said he was not inclined to order the administration to halt the work.
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