President Donald Trump is not the first president to want more room at the White House for entertaining, says the longest-serving top aide in the executive residence, offering some backup for the reason Trump has cited for his ballroom construction project. Gary Walters spent more than two decades as White House chief usher to presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — a role that is akin to being the general manager of the residence. “All the presidents that I had an opportunity to serve always talked about some possibility of an enlarged area” for entertaining, Walters said in an interview with The Associated Press about his recently published memoir.

The longest-serving White House chief usher says presidents before Donald Trump were interested in having a larger space for entertaining too.