Trump hails a 'unique' Cabinet meeting at Camp David as he seizes on
Spain's migration crisis
[August 01, 2026]
By SEUNG MIN KIM, DARLENE SUPERVILLE and JACQUELYN MARTIN
CAMP DAVID, Md. (AP) — President Donald Trump took Friday's Cabinet
meeting on the road to Camp David, using the historic rustic backdrop of
the presidential retreat to boast of his administration's achievements
while seizing on a migrant crisis in Spain to make his case for why
voters should keep the Republican Party in power.
The Cabinet meeting, the 13th such gathering of Trump's second term,
came just three months before the November midterm elections that could
serve as a check on his power if Democrats take control of one or both
chambers of Congress. His warnings about Spain echoed language he used
ahead of the 2018 midterms, when he warned of caravans of migrants
headed to the southern U.S. border.
“You know, I saw Spain yesterday, and I watched the catastrophe that
took place. It looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of
thousands of people,” Trump said. “And that same thing is going to
happen to us if the Republicans don’t get elected. Except worse, much
bigger.”
Some 60,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Spain’s tiny Ceuta
territory over the past 24 hours. Roughly half of them have already made
their way back voluntarily, according to the Spanish government, but at
least 57 have died on the journey.
Separately, he deflected blame for a series of cyberattacks that
targeted 30 water systems in Minnesota on the state’s “grossly
incompetent” Democratic leadership. Officials have not publicly
identified who was behind the attacks, though the FBI, the Cybersecurity
and Infrastructure Security Agency and other agencies warned in an
advisory last week that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and
wastewater systems and the operational controls of other critical
infrastructure sectors.
“They blame it on Iran,” Trump said, without offering evidence. “I don’t
think so. I think I blame it on Minnesota because they’re grossly
incompetent.”
The president regularly convenes his Cabinet throughout his terms as a
setting to promote his administration's policies while fielding
questions on the news of the day, but what made Friday's unusual was
that it was at Camp David, the government-owned retreat nestled in
Maryland's Catoctin Mountains where Trump held one Cabinet meeting
during his first term.
Trump began the meeting by noting it was “something very unique.” The
White House called it the first-ever televised Cabinet meeting from the
presidential retreat.
“It's Camp David, and this room is a very, very special room,” Trump
said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were
among the Cabinet officials who spoke before Trump took questions from
journalists. The public portion of the meeting ended after about an
hour.
Trump fields questions on Iran, Hamas deal and Blanche confirmation
In the lengthy question-and-answer session, Trump commented on the
latest developments regarding the war in Iran and a deal he announced
Thursday that would lead to the disarmament of the Palestinian group
Hamas. He also lamented that a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund to
compensate his allies was “dead” and appeared to back off a pledge he
made earlier this month to grant Ukraine a license to manufacture
Patriot air defense systems.
“I don’t think this would ever happen, but, you know, there’s people
that, you give that technology, they can someday turn on you,” Trump
added. “You look at war, that’s happened a couple of times over the
years, right? So we have to be very careful.”
On the Hamas agreement, Trump acknowledged that the agreement that would
also lead to Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza will have “ups and downs.”
Still, he called it a “great breakthrough” that has been helped along by
the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran, which has served as Hamas’ prime
backer.
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A sign for Camp David, the presidential retreat, is pictured near
Thurmont, Md., Aug. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
Trump also remarked on the anti-weaponization fund that is holding
up the confirmation of Todd Blanche as his attorney general, saying
the pot of money is “dead” and that “I wish it weren't, to be honest
with you.”
The president continued to defend the people who could potentially
benefit from the fund, mainly those who stormed the Capitol on Jan.
6, 2021, to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory
over him.
“Their families have been ruined,” Trump said. Those people “wanted
to go to a rally or an event and ended up spending the rest of their
lives in horror.”
Trump said Blanche has been a “pawn in this whole thing.” Blanche,
who was present, did not speak in the public portion of the Cabinet
meeting.
Camp David has been a retreat for presidents since FDR
The camp’s primary purpose is to provide presidents a place to rest,
relax and recharge. It was established in 1942 during Franklin
Roosevelt's presidency and has been used by every president since.
Roosevelt had enjoyed relaxing aboard a presidential yacht, but the
military and the U.S. Secret Service began to worry about his safety
on open water during World War II. As a result, Roosevelt asked the
National Park Service to find sites within 100 miles (160
kilometers) of the White House that he could use for rest.
He chose what is now known as Camp David. He gave it the original
name of Shangri-La, from James Hilton’s novel “Lost Horizon.”
President Dwight Eisenhower renamed it Camp David, after his
grandson and father.
Trump spent more weekends at the retreat in his first term but has
visited sparingly in his second, most recently in June for Father’s
Day.
In 2019, during his first term, Trump announced on social media that
he had canceled a secret weekend meeting at Camp David with Taliban
and Afghanistan leaders — scheduled for just days before the
anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — after a bombing in the
capital of Kabul killed a dozen people, including a U.S. soldier.
Presidents throughout history have turned to Camp David when they
needed security and privacy for sensitive diplomatic talks with
foreign leaders. Jimmy Carter took the leaders of Egypt and Israel
there in 1978 for talks that produced the Camp David Accords, a
peace agreement between the two countries.
The 180-acre (73-hectare) retreat, which is run by the Navy and
guarded by Marines, has a cabin named Aspen that’s reserved for the
president, plus about a dozen other cabins for guests. A main lodge
has conference rooms, a dining room and an office for the president.
___
Superville and Kim reported from Washington. Associated Press
writers Collin Binkley, Will Weissert and Aamer Madhani contributed
to this report from Washington.
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