After a dramatic back and forth over where the next G7 will be hosted, Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the summit will be hosted at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
“I think it’s been more or less announced,” Trump told the press while attending the NATO summit in London, “we’re gonna do it at Camp David.”
“We’ll be doing some very special things at Camp David. It’s nearby, it’s close,” Trump added.
Trump stirred controversy in October when his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney announced that the summit would be held at the Trump National Doral Resort near Miami.
Within 48 hours of the announcement, Trump reversed the decision and tweeted that the summit would no longer be held at his resort, a reaction to strong criticism from both sides of the aisle that the President would be profiting by hosting such an important summit at a Trump property.
Trump lamented the decision afterward saying that he had been offering use of the resort for free, and claimed he doesn’t need to promote his businesses as President adding his administration was facing “Irrational hostility.”
The White House is about 65 miles away from Camp David, or a short ride on Marine One for the President.
The decision to host the summit at Camp David doesn’t come as a surprise. Trump had hinted the possibility in October and former president Barack Obama hosted the 2012 gathering, then known as the G8, at Camp David.
Camp David has been the official retreat for presidents going back to Franklin Roosevelt, although Trump prefers to spend his downtime at his resorts and clubs in Florida and New Jersey.
The Trump White House has mostly used Camp David as a meeting place, most recently summoning Congressional Republicans together on a weekend to discuss the impeachment inquiry and strategy.
However, in October, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner hosted a party at the retreat to celebrate their 10th anniversary, which Trump attended and paid for.
