WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is moving Friday’s Cabinet meeting out of the White House and into the wooded setting of Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, for a session that will give his team a change of scenery from gatherings often noted for their marathon length and repeated praise of the president.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the meeting, the 13th Cabinet session of Trump’s second term, as “a lot of fun and something different for the Cabinet to experience together.”
The trip will mark the first Cabinet meeting held at Camp David during Trump’s second term. A previous effort to convene there in May was canceled because of poor weather. Trump also used the retreat for a Cabinet meeting during his first term in office.
The public portion of Trump’s Cabinet meetings has at times stretched to nearly three hours, with the president inviting officials around the table to deliver updates on their departments and agencies, often alongside praise for his leadership. Unlike many of his predecessors, Trump has allowed reporters to remain in the room throughout the proceedings, a practice Leavitt has cited as evidence of his commitment to transparency.
In recent meetings, however, Trump has acknowledged that the sessions can run long. He has started encouraging Cabinet members and agency leaders to shorten their remarks and has reduced the number of officials giving spoken reports.
“Everybody around here has got a lot to say. But we did that once, and it lasted for like four or five hours. It was a little much,” Trump said during the May meeting.
Camp David, formally established in 1942 under President Franklin Roosevelt, has served as a retreat for every U.S. president since.
Roosevelt had preferred to unwind aboard the presidential yacht, but during World War II, military officials and the U.S. Secret Service grew concerned about the risks of open-water travel. He then asked the National Park Service to identify possible retreat sites within 100 miles, or 160 kilometers, of the White House where he could rest more securely.
He chose what is now known as Camp David. He gave it the original name of Shangri-La, from James Hilton’s novel “Lost Horizon.” President Dwight Eisenhower renamed it Camp David, after his grandson and father.
Trump spent more weekends at the retreat in his first term but has visited sparingly in his second, most recently in June for Father’s Day.
In 2019, during his first term, Trump announced on social media that he had canceled a secret weekend meeting at Camp David with Taliban and Afghanistan leaders – scheduled for just days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks – after a bombing in the capital of Kabul killed a dozen people, including a U.S. soldier.
Presidents throughout history have turned to Camp David when they needed security and privacy for sensitive diplomatic talks with foreign leaders. Jimmy Carter took the leaders of Egypt and Israel there in 1978 for talks that produced the Camp David Accords, a peace agreement between the two countries.
Camp David is also where Carter huddled in 1979 with representatives of a cross-section of American society. He later delivered a nationally televised speech on energy policy that became known as the “malaise” speech – even though he never said the word.
The camp’s primary purpose is to provide presidents a place to rest, relax and recharge.
The 180-acre (73-hectare) retreat, which is run by the Navy and guarded by Marines, has a cabin named Aspen that’s reserved for the president, plus about a dozen other cabins for guests. A main lodge has conference rooms, a dining room and an office for the president.
Guests can take advantage of a range of indoor and outdoor amenities, including a fitness center, a bowling alley, a movie theater, a heated swimming pool and tennis and basketball courts. A chapel offers religious services.
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
