Flailing About in the Trump Bunker

During previous administrations, a cabinet meeting at Camp David would have aroused only moderate interest. Past presidents used the retreat mostly to escape the frenetic bustle of Washington. They treasured the bucolic ambience and, when other government officials joined them, availed themselves of the opportunity for a more frank interchange of views than meetings in the White House would allow. At this unspoiled refuge in the Catoctin Mountains, even visiting heads of state dressed casually and took walks in the woods, encouraged by the calm around them to speak candidly, free of the scrutiny that accompanies their every word in a more public setting. As such, unless Camp David was to be the site of a tumultuous meeting of foreign leaders, as with Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin in 1978, reporters generally took only low-key notice of presidential visits.

When Donald Trump heads to Camp David, however, it’s news. Trump loathes Camp David. Everything that other presidents found so appealing is anathema to him—rustic accommodations, uncleared woods, informal attire, golf carts without a golf course, and nothing gold except the falling leaves in autumn. All this could easily qualify as Trump’s definition of hell. His destinations of choice are the garishly overstuffed Mar A Lago or the Trump golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. During the first eighteen months of his second administration, he had visited Camp David only twice.

Until this past weekend.

While of course he brought in cameras and tried to make the meeting an event, that Trump chose to adjourn to Camp David at all is significant. This was his way of demonstrating to the nation how serious he is about governing and dealing with our most pressing issues, to say nothing of deferring accusations that he sleeps through important meetings or acts like an impulsive eight-year-old with no thought as to consequences. Although these charges have been leveled since he took office in January 2025, until now Trump has taken scant heed, either laughing them off or attacking his accusers. It cannot be a coincidence that this attempt to show…maturity…comes in the face of the lowest approval ratings since Richard Nixon resigned in 1973, a war in Iran that he clearly has not won and likely has already lost, the inability to get Todd Blanche confirmed as attorney general without giving up much of his IRS immunity, and Senate Republicans who have come to tell him to go jump in his non-vandalized Reflecting Pool.

That Trump has responded by acting for show is not surprising, nor is his unwillingness to admit even the most minor misstep—he chose to attack one of his most loyal supporters, Jeanine Pirro, rather than admit his contractor of choice had turned the Reflecting Pool green. The real question is whether, from here, he is capable of going beyond bluster, insults, lies, and ludicrous self-defense, even when his policies have proven disastrous and the country is clearly moving away from him. The very fact that he called this meeting and made a big show of publicizing it would indicate that both he and his few trusted advisors are aware of the precarious position in which he has placed his presidency and his party’s ability to hold on to either house of Congress.

Many other presidents, when faced with a clear need to change course, have at least attempted to do so. Bill Clinton, for example, scrapped his national health care plan and Richard Nixon introduced wage and price controls when the economy was spiraling out of control. But to say that adapting to changing circumstances has never been one of Donald Trump’s skills is an understatement, although his insistence on tuning out all but the most favorable news is not. It is difficult to solve a problem if you and those around you refuse to admit that a problem exists. (Just ask Joe and Jill Biden.)

But in the absence of a clear and decisive change in direction, all that is left is flailing about and hoping everything will somehow turn out right. Which is why the cabinet meeting at Camp David looks more like a retreat to a bunker than a visit to a country retreat.

The flailing is everywhere. Early in 2026, when there began to be a real possibility that Democrats could take back the House and even, if things broke just right, the Senate, Trump was beseeched by party leaders to focus on the economy and the increasing cost of food, clothing, medical care, and many other necessities. In fact, the only success he could claim was in controlling gasoline prices, a major expense for many of his truck-loving followers. They reminded him of his promise to lower the cost of living on the proverbial “day one,” and urged him to apply the same zeal to food prices as he had to energy costs.

Instead, he got suckered into beginning a war with Iran by Benjamin Netanyahu, going in with no real goals, no plan for an extended campaign, and no foresight about the economic and political costs the conflict could exact. His pronouncements, beginning with a declaration of victory, again on “day one,” to the current war-peace-war-peace scenario, dictated mostly by Iran’s awareness of the depletion of our weapons stockpile, have been hollow and viewed with disbelief by a growing segment of an already skeptical nation.

Trump’s inability to chart a steady and effective course extends from vital national interests to the trivial and ludicrous. The Reflecting Pool is the most obvious example, but the dud that was the nation’s 250^th anniversary, the open sore at what was the East Wing of the White House, and his ham-fisted interference in the United States’ World Cup round of 16 match against Belgium—which we then proceeded to lose—are emblazoned into the public awareness as well.

Trump has made a career of trying to appear successful when just the reverse is true, to which multiple bankruptcies, a string of disgruntled business associates, and failed marriages and friendships attest. For two terms, he has used the same form-over-substance approach to run the country and declare himself the greatest president in our history.

He is anything but and with the country seeming to finally catch on, Trump, with his “serious presidential” cabinet meeting at Camp David, has again resorted to the only tactic he knows.

Looking like something he isn’t.