President Donald Trump is convening a Cabinet meeting at his Camp David retreat on Friday as his administration faces mounting questions over how to manage an expanding military confrontation with Iran and how to ease gasoline prices that have become a political concern for Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections.
The visit to the mountain presidential retreat in western Maryland is notable for its rarity. Unlike some predecessors, Trump has frequently chosen his golf resorts over Camp David when he is away from the White House. The upcoming session will mark his third trip to Camp David during his second term and, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, will represent the 13th Cabinet meeting of that term. Leavitt told reporters last week that the gathering would be "a lot of fun and something different for the cabinet to experience together."
Officials expect the agenda to be weighted toward foreign policy issues. The president has overseen a cycle of tit-for-tat strikes targeting Iranian positions that show no clear endpoint. What Mr. Trump initially framed as a short-lived operation has now extended into a conflict that is five months old. That extended timeline has coincided with a rise in gasoline costs, a development that has begun to affect public opinion and political calculations within the Republican Party.
A recent Reuters-Ipsos poll cited this week found that support for the war has fallen to roughly one in three Americans, a low point for the survey since the early days of the conflict. Lawmakers and strategists within Republican ranks are expressing unease about how the economic and political effects of the conflict will play in the run-up to November, when Democratic challengers will aim to unseat GOP majorities in Congress.
Cabinet meetings under Mr. Trump tend to be lengthy, often running well over an hour. Secretaries typically provide departmental updates and frequently offer public praise for the president. Once the Camp David session concludes, the president is scheduled to travel to his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club for the weekend.
The choice of Camp David as the setting for this Cabinet meeting underscores the administration's effort to marshal its senior officials around a single, high-priority set of issues - primarily the trajectory of the conflict with Iran and its ripple effects at home - even as questions persist about the path forward.