Trump spends weekend at ‘rustic’ Camp David tweeting about Biden, Flynn and ‘Russia hoax’

The president is at his Camp David retreat for ‘a working weekend’ with aides including daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared and recently-returned Hope Hicks

President Donald Trump talks to journalists on the South Lawn while departing the White House for Camp David on 1 May, 2020 (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Donald Trump is swapping isolation in the White House for isolation at Camp David this weekend in his first trip outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in more than a month.

He spent Saturday morning tweeting about his poll numbers, Congress, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and Michael Flynn.

The “working weekend” in rural Maryland will also see the president meet with staff and conduct phone calls with other world leaders regarding the coronavirus pandemic, according to press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

Joining the president are his daughter Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner, counsellor to the president Hope Hicks, chief-of-staff Mark Meadows, and deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino.

Taking questions as he left the White House to board Marine One on Friday, the president was asked if he planned to practice social distancing over the weekend. He said he would.

Ms Hicks was also seen heading across the lawn towards the president’s official helicopter with Mr Kushner and Mr Scavino. It is believed to be the first time she has been seen in public since returning to the White House in early March following a stint in Los Angeles.

The president has spent little time at Camp David during his presidency, referring to it as “rustic” in one interview and preferring to spend weekends golfing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Shortly before he took office, he told The Times and German newspaper Bild: “Yeah, Camp David is very rustic, it’s nice, you’d like it. You know how long you’d like it? For about 30 minutes.”

With the country still largely on lockdown and the death toll climbing higher by the day, the retreat to Camp David creates better optics, being just 70 miles from Washington and known as a venue for important summits and negotiations.

True to form, the President took to Twitter on Saturday, first stating that there are plenty of coronavirus tests available for Senators returning to Congress on Monday, and that the House should also return, but that Nancy Pelosi will not allow it to reconvene.

He also touted new poll numbers, hit out at Joe Biden, retweeted some of his supporters, and then returned to the topic of the Russia investigation, including a call to exonerate Michael Flynn.

Retweeting The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel, the president wrote: “The Russia Hoax is the biggest political scandal in American history. Treason!!! Lets see how it ends????”

President Trump will return to Washington on Sunday and is scheduled to take part in a virtual town hall on Fox News that night at the Lincoln Memorial. Hosted by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, the two-hour event is called America Together: Returning to Work.