America’s most exclusive gift shop

Aug 23, 2023

By LAUREN EGAN, JENNIFER HABERKORN, ELI STOKOLS and LAWRENCE UKENYE

08/18/2023 05:57 PM EDT

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CAMP DAVID, Md. — When the White House announced that it would open up President JOE BIDEN’s first-ever Camp David summit to reporters, it presented a rare opportunity for the press corps to get a glimpse of the rustic presidential retreat.

What they didn’t expect was a chance to get some holiday shopping out of the way, too.

Reporters gathered Friday morning at the White House, loading onto buses for the nearly two-hour ride to the campsite nestled in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains. As they took in the tree-lined campus that offered a brief break from the oppressive D.C. summer heat, they were greeted with the most American of vistas: a gift shop.

The Camp David store is actually located on a part of the campus that was off-limits to the media. But special accommodations were made to set up a pop-up shop Friday outside the press work space so that no one would miss out on the chance to buy some overpriced trinkets from one of the country’s hardest to reach gift stores.

As reporters waited for Biden’s press conference with Japanese Prime Minister FUMIO KISHIDA and South Korea President YOON SUK YEOL, they mobbed the pop-up shop, stocking up on just about every item one could think to emblazon with the words “Camp David.” Some offered to bring back items to their colleagues (way to rub it in, guys); others decided to get ahead on some Christmas shopping.

There were Camp David key chains ($10), cigars ($13), humidor with cigars ($150) and pint glasses ($20), as well as robes, blankets, baseball hats, mugs, playing cards, polo shirts, golf divots, cigar slicers, magnets, patches, pens and even charcuterie boards.

The pint glasses and key chains appeared to be the most popular. Challenge coins were in high demand, too.

Gifts at a Camp David pop-up shop on Friday. | Jennifer Haberkorn

Reporters are not the only ones to be enraptured by the Camp David gift shop. During a trip there with then-President DONALD TRUMP, Rep. ANN WAGNER (R-Mo.) spent so much money on T-shirts, golf balls, decanters, cufflinks, baby bibs and other souvenirs that her husband received an alert asking if their credit card had been stolen.

Even the president’s own family is not above indulging.

“We bought him some swag since it’s Presidents’ Day weekend and he’s ‘literally’ President,” NAOMI BIDEN, the president’s eldest grandchild, tweeted in February 2021, with a photo of the same Camp David hat that reporters shelled out money for on Friday.

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Although Friday was the first foreign leader summit Biden has hosted at Camp David, he’s increasingly spent a significant amount of time at the retreat with his family, enjoying the media-free privacy that the leafy green mountains afford.

Friday marked Biden’s 29th visit to Camp David since he took office — totalling 97 days spent at the retreat, according to MARK KNOLLER, the former CBS White House correspondent who continues to keep detailed records of presidential travels. At the same point in their presidencies, Trump had spent 20 days at the camp (he preferred his posh, privately-owned clubs), while BARACK OBAMA had spent 48 and GEORGE W. BUSH 194.

Each president has had their own relationship with the campsite. BILL CLINTON didn’t spend much time there until his second term, after his daughter left for college. Bush was a Camp David regular and his staff described it as the next best thing for him when he couldn’t make the long trip back to his Texas ranch. But MICHELLE OBAMA once said that her husband “does not care for [Camp David] all that much,” and the pair hardly spent time there.

“This is the first summit I’ve hosted at Camp David and I can think of no more fitting location to symbolize our new era of cooperation,” Biden said Friday.

MESSAGE US — Are you SOMEONE WHO BOUGHT A CAMP DAVID CHARCUTERIE BOARD? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at [email protected].

Who was the first president to address the NAACP?

(Answer at bottom.)

Political cartoon | Monte Wolverton

If it’s Friday, it’s cartoon day! This one is by MONTE WOLVERTON. Our very own MATT WUERKER publishes a carousel of cartoons from all over the country.

IT’S NOT YOU, CHINA, IT’S US: As noted above, Biden met with the Japanese prime minister and the South Korean president for a summit at Camp David, where he urged the the Indo-Pacific nations to put aside their historical differences to bolster economic and security cooperation in the region, our Jennifer Haberkorn and JONATHAN LEMIRE report. The three countries reaffirmed their commitment to counter North Korea’s aggressive behavior, and indirectly acknowledged threats posed by China through their desire to maintain peace in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.

“I’ll just say this — this summit was not about China, that was not the purpose of the meeting but China did not come up,” Biden said. The allies struggled to come to a consensus on whether to name Beijing as a threat to stability in the region before the summit began, our PHELIM KINE reported.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This Newsweek op-ed by MADDIE SELL about how Biden’s policies have helped grow the country’s middle class. Sell writes that it’s not an accident that the U.S. has the lowest annual inflation rate and a robust GDP growth compared to its G-7 peers — both are the byproducts of the semiconductor and climate bills the president signed last summer. “Our economy shouldn’t be measured by the value of the stock market, but the ability of Americans to live a middle class life that affords meaningful financial stability,” Sell writes. White House communications director BEN LABOLT tweeted the piece.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by CNN’s KEVIN LIPTAK, JEFF ZELENY and ARLETTE SAENZ about how special counsel investigations into Biden and his son HUNTER BIDEN could erode some of the moral high ground the president hoped to establish in contrast to former President DONALD TRUMP. Advisers have conceded that the probes could result in the unearthing of new information that special counsels often don’t set out to uncover. “The fact that it’s also a delicate family matter, people close to Biden say, is creating a level of personal angst unlike any other challenge for the president,” the reporters write.

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BECAUSE THE PANDEMIC IS STILL A THING: New White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness director PAUL FRIEDRICHS has made his first major hire since taking over earlier this month, tapping NIKKI ROMANIK as the office’s deputy director and chief of staff, the White House confirmed to our ADAM CANCRYN. Romanik, who will also be a special assistant to the president, is a former CDC official who spent the last year as part of the White House’s monkeypox response team.

MORE PERSONNEL MOVES: RICK HART is now special assistant to senior adviser to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs TOM PEREZ. He most recently was special assistant to PPO director GAUTAM RAGHAVAN and is also an alum of Sen. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-Ga.).

— LIYA RECHTMAN is now policy adviser at the Department of Transportation focused on transportation sector mitigation, land use, housing, and modeling tools. She most recently was climate policy advisor for the California State Transportation Agency.

— JOE BILLINGSLEY is now senior policy adviser for cyber workforce, training and education for the Office of the National Cyber Director at the White House. He most recently was director of strategic engagement for the College of Information and Cyberspace at the National Defense University and founder of the Military Cyber Professionals Association.

WHY NO MAUI PROBE? Although the White House has promised to provide billions of dollars for Hawaii’s search and recovery efforts following wildfires that devastated Maui, there are still no plans to launch a federal investigation into the cause of the blaze, our JENNIFER SCHOLTES and ALEX DAUGHERTY report.

FEMA Administrator DEANNE CRISWELL has deferred questions about a federal probe to Hawaii officials — who plan to launch their own investigation. But she acknowledged it wouldn’t have the same scope as a national oversight team, the pair write. The need to create a dedicated team to investigate disasters has generated growing bipartisan support from lawmakers, who will soon weigh in on Biden’s request for $12 billion in emergency funding to support the state’s relief efforts.

BIDEN VS. BIG PHARMA: The administration will begin rolling out the first 10 drugs it plans to target under a program that allows their prices to be negotiated between the government and pharmaceuticals, the Washington Post’s TONY ROMM reports. The negotiation process comes just more than a year after the Inflation Reduction Act included the provision. The drug list will be released within the next few weeks, and experts believe it will include meds to treat arthritis, heart disease and diabetes.

Although the law has helped reduce insulin costs for roughly 4 million seniors, a growing number of pharmaceutical firms have targeted the government with lawsuits over concerns that lower prices could delay development for future treatments.

SPEAKING OF BIG PHARMA: Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) is traveling to New Hampshire next Saturday to deliver what his aides are describing as a “major address” related to the 2024 election. In part, he wants to make sure that Biden and Democrats are focusing on policy issues he believes still need to be addressed during the campaign, rather than just emphasize what the party has accomplished during Biden’s presidency. Sanders has been a thorn in the administration’s side this summer, vowing to oppose all health nominees until the White House meets his demands to do more to slash drug prices.

THE GREEN LIGHT FINALLY ARRIVES: The U.S. has formalized plans to transfer F-16 training materials to Denmark so Ukrainian pilots can begin learning to operate the aircraft, our LARA SELIGMAN reports. The new urgency from Washington comes following a report from the WaPo’s JOHN HUDSON and ALEX HORTON that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is likely to fall short of its key goal to sever Russia’s land bridge to Crimea.

Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of the first episodes in September – click here.

American democracy is cracking. These forces help explain why. (WaPo’s Dan Balz and Clara Ence Morse)

The U.S. Is Beefing Up Alliances Across Asia—But Don’t Expect an ‘Asian NATO’ Anytime Soon (TIME’s Chad de Guzman)

‘Pathetic': Voters of color slam Biden’s performance on the economy (POLITICO’s Brakkton Booker)

On June 29, 1947, HARRY S. TRUMAN pledged to uphold the civil rights of all Americans when he became the first U.S. president to address the NAACP at a speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

Thanks to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum for this question!

A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it!

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.