It has already been close to a month since the “Democrats have shut down the government” — and there is no end in sight for any agreement between the Democrats and Republicans. As the country struggles with flight cancellations resulting from work without pay and other federal employees are being laid off or fired, what’s President Donald Trump’s main focus?

The White House’s construction on his new ballroom.

How strange that the White House is considered the “people’s house,” and yet our current sitting president has destroyed the East Wing. How strange that so many American citizens rely on healthcare and food benefits, and yet those are the very programs the government is trying to take away.

Do we suddenly not have the right to healthcare and food? Does a ballroom that mimics Versailles (with a president who cares more about appearance than population) really take precedence?

Bigger question: Are we greater yet?

The government stays shut down with no end in sight as Americans around the country continue to suffer. But yes, please, let’s continue to build a ballroom that arguably only the top 0.01% of the country will ever actually get to step foot in.

How can our president or our senators and representatives represent us if there is no government to serve the people at a time like this? We’re far from united. It’s negotiable if we’re stately, and America has become an unattainable dream for most.

Mr. President, the America we all hope our country can one day be can’t exist like this — in a house with a golden ballroom while your citizens are in the streets protesting, and journalism spits out crude facts that you deny.

Build your ballroom while your citizens ask for bread. Build your Versailles like you’re the gilded King Louis XVI. Build your walls. You can hide behind the opulence, but this country can’t get away from the shutdown that continues to ruin lives instead of making them great.