President Donald Trump has gone to Camp David for the first time to spend his weekend at the presidential retreat. It will be a big change for him because he usually opts for the luxurious surroundings at Mar-A-Lago to spend his weekends when he wants to get away from the routine and busy life of the White House.
The retreat is a property of the government and is located in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland.
It is not far from Washington and is reachable by helicopter. However, it has failed to impress the President because of its rustic look. He had, once, remarked to a foreign newspaper that the retreat was rustic and did not match with his preferences.
The importance of Camp David
Fox News reports that Donald Trump is accustomed to luxury and is not likely to make it a habit of going to Camp David as some of his predecessors had done. It has been a tradition for the past seven decades for presidents of the United States to go to the retreat for several reasons that included a few diplomatic negotiations of historical importance.
President Barack Obama had visited it a number of times but had played host on only two occasions. The first time it was the G8 Summit in 2012 and the second time it was to conduct a meeting with Persian Gulf leaders about the Iran nuclear deal in 2015. Other presidents have used the venue for a wide variety of reasons like discussing plans of World War II, holding peace talks between Egypt and Israel and even hosting the marriage of a daughter.
The sprawling presidential retreat has a cabin for the president along with a number of other accommodation for guests. There are provisions of a whole lot of activities like tennis, swimming, bowling, and golf and the complete property is guarded by the US Marines as part of the Navy budget.
Why is Trump reluctant to go there?
Donald Trump wants to project himself as a different type of president and does not relish the idea of being separated from the life of luxury and opulence that he is used to. He prefers his own properties and has a fascination for his private club in Florida. Soon after assuming office, he labeled it as the "winter White House" and hosted the leaders of Japan and China there ignoring the presence of the presidential retreat.
It is obvious that conducting official business in private locations translates into additional expenses towards providing security cover while a trip to Camp David is free from such expenses since it gets 24X7 protection by virtue of being a property of the government.
Incidentally, Tomas Roosevelt was the first president who used it way back in 1942 - he was on the lookout for an escape from the summer heat of Washington and still be nearby during the World War II era. So he chose Camp David and other presidents also patronized it.