The Group of Seven summit is an annual meeting between the seven most economically advanced countries in the world: Britain, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and the United States. Every year a different country out of the seven hosts the meeting—this year, the United States will host. On Tuesday, December 3, President Donald Trump announced that the G7 summit would be held at Camp David.
The G7 summit is typically hosted at a government-owned property, but Trump initially wanted the meeting to be located at his resort, the Trump National Doral Miami. After receiving much negative feedback, he decided to change the location to Camp David.
Far away from the hubbub of the capital, it is an optimal place to meet with others without the pressure of outsiders.
Camp David, or the Naval Support Facility Thurmont, is located in the Catoctin Mountain Park in Frederick County, Maryland. Originally, Camp David was a camp for federal government agents built by the Works Progress Administration. Now, Camp David is a presidential retreat where Presidents can host foreign leaders. Far away from the hubbub of the capital, it is an optimal place to meet with others without the pressure of outsiders.
Camp David has been available to every president since it was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s. In 1943, Roosevelt hosted Prime Minister Winston Churchill there, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower held his first cabinet meeting in 1955 and met with Nikita Khrushchev in 1959.
One of the most important events that has happened at Camp David is the Camp David Accords. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter sat down with the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to sign a revolutionary peace treaty, earning the president a Nobel Peace Prize.
In his announcement on December 3, President Trump said, “We’ll be doing some very special things at Camp David.”
I strongly believe that Camp David is the right location for the United States to host the G7 Summit. It was clearly wrong for President Trump to try and make the location for the summit at his own resort for financial gain. Hosting this meeting at Camp David is a brilliant idea due to the rich history that has taken place at the location between U.S. presidents and foreign leaders.
This is the correct location to host the summit because there is no controversy. The decision to hold the summit at the resort angered many people, but Camp David serves as a common ground. Other Presidents have hosted at Camp David for the summit, such as President Barack Obama, and it ran smoothly, so I believe that the tradition can continue.
Hopefully President Trump does not change his mind again, because he made the right decision with Camp David.
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