Donald Trump has managed to make his obnoxious red MAGA hats a part of the secluded presidential retreat famous for hosting high-stakes global peace talks and foreign dignitaries.
Behind the president’s right shoulder at Friday’s Cabinet meeting at Camp David was an old black-and-white photo of Dwight D. Eisenhower and his Cabinet, and on the wall to his left was the new addition that seemed impossible to ignore: Trump, 80, had hung a photograph of his May 2026 Cabinet meeting at the White House, which showed red MAGA “USA 250 Anniversary” caps directly in front of every member of his inner circle sitting around the table.
It was, perhaps, no coincidence that those same hats were selling for $55 a head at the Trump merchandise store.
Nor was it a surprise that outside the meeting on Friday was a table with red hats and green hats with “45 & 47″ stitched on the side.
During the Cold War in 1959, Eisenhower had hosted Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the Maryland mountain hideaway. Six years earlier, he had renamed the cabin complex from “Shangri-La” to Camp David, after his grandson, David Eisenhower.
On Friday, Trump hosted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff, Health Secretary RFK Jr., Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and other members of his inner circle. They each took their turn to speak, mostly to praise their leader.
RFK Jr. shared that he often visited Camp David when his uncle, John F. Kennedy, was president between 1961 and 1963, adding that his father loved the getaway, as well.
Then he went on to compare his uncle unfavorably with Trump, saying that Kennedy had only 30 press conferences during his 1,000-day presidency.
“You have one every day,” he added, gushing over Trump’s transparent presidency.
Notably, there’s a photo of John F. Kennedy on the wall in the meeting room. There is also now a picture of Trump with the Camp David staff.
The president said the first televised Cabinet meeting at the storied rustic retreat was “something very unique.”
“It’s Camp David, and this room is a very, very special room,” he added.
Trump held a closed-door Cabinet meeting at Camp David during his first term, but had to cancel an earlier plan to hold a gathering of his senior officials in May because of bad weather.
Franklin D. Roosevelt named the compound “Shangri-La” after James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon after it was established in 1942. Every president has used it since.
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