Throughout American history, the secluded, wood-paneled lodges of Camp David have served as the ultimate backdrop for executive gravitas—the quiet mountain sanctuary in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains where Jimmy Carter brokered Middle East peace and war councils plotted global strategy far removed from the petty noise of Washington.
But on Friday, Donald Trump dragged his administration to the historic retreat for a very different kind of exercise: a televised, downcast plea for political survival disguised as a meeting of the executive branch.
