Camp David, the wooded Presidential retreat in Maryland, has hosted foreign dignitaries and heads of state since the early 1940s, and even lends its name to the shorthand title of the historic 1978 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. In recent weeks, the Washington Post reports, its main use by the Trump Administration has been to butter up Republican lawmakers who are likely to vote in forthcoming impeachment matters.
The lodges and hiking trails 62 miles north-west of Washington D.C. have never much appealed to Donald Trump, who prefers to spend his off-hours at his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida. However, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney hit upon the idea of using the otherwise dormant facility for a public relations push within the President’s own party. “Who would want to go there?” the Washington Post reports Trump as asking [link]. Apparently many would. More than 40 House Republicans in groups of 10 have packed their bug spray and made the trip.
The “no phones allowed” policy has led to what one attendee called an “adult playground,” featuring a bowling alley and arcade, as well as clay pigeon shooting and, yes, the cooking of s’mores.
The President has yet to make an in-person appearance, but will call in around dinner time, to “compliment” the attendees.
Representative Ann Wagner of Missouri’s 2nd District told the paper that she’d “worked with a number of Republican presidents over various administrations . . . and never, ever been invited to Camp David.” She also added that “It was amazing to go for the short weekend. So historic.” It is unclear what in the heck a “short weekend” is, or if it is just a “not-long weekend,” known to most people as just a “weekend.”
The Camp David campaign is part of a wider push that also includes newly regular Thursday lunches at the White House. 100 Republican House members and 50 of the 53 GOP Senators have attended since the impeachment inquiry was launched. Chicken is served, according to the Washington Post’s report. Lawmakers also joined Trump’s recent trips to a college football game in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where a man was arrested for stabbing a balloon likeness of the President, and UFC 244 in New York City, where the President was booed.