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Camp David

Camp David neighbors say Trump should visit to see what 'rustic' looks like

Rick Hampson
USA TODAY

THURMONT, Md. — It was good enough for FDR to host Churchill, for the marriage of a president’s daughter, for a summit conference that produced one of the most important peace treaties of the 20th century.

President John F. Kennedy, left, discusses the failed Bay of Pigs invasion with former president Dwight D. Eisenhower as they walk along a path at Camp David on April 22, 1961.

But Camp David, the fabled presidential weekend retreat, is apparently not good enough for the master of Mar-a-Lago.

“Camp David is very rustic, it's nice, you'd like it,’’ President Trump said in an interview last month with two European newspapers. “You know how long you'd like it? For about 30 minutes.’’

That put-down has offended some people here — “Can I poke him in the nose?’’ asks Donna Voellinger of the Thurmont Historical Society, who says much of the town’s civic identity and all of its global reputation rests on its connection to the place a few miles up the mountain.

But most respond with equanimity.

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“I don’t worry one way or the other if the president comes to Camp David,’’ says Kirby Delauter, 52, who met the candidate last year at a rally and keeps a framed, Trump-autographed admission ticket in his office. His vote in November helped Trump carry the town and Frederick County.

“Whether the president likes Camp David or not means nothing to me,’’ says Mark Long, 64, who voted for Hillary Clinton.  “He says a lot of crazy things. This is not that important, compared to what else he’s doing wrong.’’

Both acknowledge the obvious: This president, like his predecessor, is a city guy more at home on the golf course than in the woods.

Camp David “looks like a camp — a very nice camp, but a camp. It’s not the super luxury he’s used to,’’ says Marty Burns. He served at the camp as a Marine in the 1980s, met a bank teller who became his wife, and settled here.

In this Dec. 22, 1984, file photo, President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wave after their arrival at Camp David.

Their indifference to Trump’s insult and his absence (he has yet to visit as president) is largely explained by the fact that, except for the sound of a helicopter or an unexpected road closing, most local residents don’t even know if the president is at Camp David. Several residents say that President Obama visited only a few times, when in fact he was there dozens of times, including his last birthday.

When the president is there, it has almost no impact on life outside the electrified fence. “We’re proud of our association with Camp David, but it makes no difference to us if the president is in residence or not,’’ says Mayor John Kinnaird.

On a visit, a USA TODAY reporter did not meet anyone who’d personally laid eyes on a president since Bill Clinton.

It wasn’t always that way.

What is today Camp David was part of a New Deal project to build several camps in the Catoctin Mountains of north-central Maryland. In 1942 President Roosevelt, looking for a cool, secluded summer retreat, selected one of the camps and named it “Shangri-La’’ after the Himalayan country in James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon.

The camp consisted of a series of cabins that over the years have been expanded, winterized, remodeled or replaced. In 1953 President Eisenhower, who reportedly said that as a Kansan he found the Shangri-La tag a bit much, renamed the place after his grandson.

As the closest town, Thurmont (2010 pop. 6,600) had a window on history. Roosevelt brought Churchill down into town for a drink at a speakeasy. Harry Truman showed up at the Masonic Lodge for a meeting. The Kennedy children came down the hill for ice cream, Nancy Reagan to buy fabric.

Presidents from FDR to Ford attended Sunday church services in town. Mayor Kinnaird, 62, recalls throwing snowballs in the direction of Lyndon Johnson. Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush ventured outside Camp David for the fly fishing, Bill Clinton to golf and host a dinner party.

President Bill Clinton rides his golf cart with Tony Rodham, brother of Hillary Clinton, as dog Buddy chases behind at the Maple Run Golf Club in Thurmont, Md., on Jan. 31, 1998.

When Bush’s daughter Doro was married at Camp David in 1992, many relatives stayed in town at the Cozy Inn.

When the mountain was fogged in, sometimes Marine One would land in a town ball field, or a motorcade from the White House would to roll down the main street.

But that ended with the construction of a highway bypass. In the 1980s, a chapel was built at Camp David, eliminating the president’s need to worship in town. And the 9/11 attacks made camp security even tighter, and any presidential visit to town a much bigger, more intrusive production.

The Camp David sign was taken down from the gate on Park Central Road in Catoctin Mountain Park. Today the camp does not appear on park maps, and rangers refuse to tell visitors where it is.

The camp also has become increasingly self-contained. It has a single golf hole, a theater with first-run films, a hot tub, two swimming pools, a softball field, horse stables, tennis courts, a bowling alley and a skeet shooting range, along with trails for hiking, jogging and biking. And — Trump, take note — a horseshoes sandbox.

President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown walk to a joint press availability at Camp David on July 30, 2007.

Marines provide security and the Navy handles logistics, such as food and medical service. When the president’s not at Camp David, it can be used for executive staff meetings or retreats — assuming Trump doesn’t try to close it.

He seems likely to weekend at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach club; his golf course in central New Jersey horse country; or his penthouse at Trump Tower in Manhattan, where his wife and son live.

But if presidential visits to Camp David are inconspicuous, Trump’s to these destinations are just the opposite. Mar-a-Lago is proving particularly problematic. There’s the cost of traveling to Florida, potential conflicts of interest involving club members, traffic jams on an already a congested island, and security. This month, those in the club’s public dining room witnessed Trump get word of a North Korean missile launch.

The Trumps walk ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife, Akie Abe, to pose for a photo before they have dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Feb. 11, 2017.

Camp David, on the other hand, is a 25-minute helicopter ride from the White House and sits in the midst of federal park land behind a long-established security perimeter.

Some presidents have enjoyed Camp David more than others, but the place seems to have grown on each of them. Carter thought about closing it — it now costs about $10 million a year to staff and run — but wound up using it to host talks that led to the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel.

In 2012, Obama used Camp David to host the G8 summit, an event that flooded the town with journalists, protesters, security personnel and government staffers — just like old times.

Mayor Kinnaird says Camp David may win over Trump as it won over other skeptics. “It’s a hideaway,’’ he says, “and sooner or later everybody needs a hideaway.’’

He should at least come to visit, Kinnaird adds, “just to see what ‘rustic’ looks like.’’

President Obama briefs journalists following the G-8 Summit on May 19, 2012, at Camp David.

Read more:

The first 100 days of the Trump presidency

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