Camp David, the president's rustic Maryland mountain retreat, through the years

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump left behind the gold-accented White House on Friday for a Cabinet meeting at rustic Camp David in Maryland's mountains.

The retreat, about an hour northwest of Washington, has been the backdrop for presidential summits and smaller-scale meetings since Franklin Roosevelt established it during World War II. Friday’s meeting isn’t Trump’s first at Camp David, but he has spent less time at the compound than other presidents, and typically spends weekends at his own properties, including Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and his golf courses in New Jersey and Virginia.

Here's a look at some key dates and prominent visitors in the camp's history, assembled using archival material from The Associated Press, the National Archives, and presidential libraries.

1942 — Roosevelt established the camp as Shangri-La, a reference from James Hilton's novel “Lost Horizon.” Roosevelt had liked to relax on a presidential yacht, but the military and Secret Service started to worry about his safety on the open water during World War II. Roosevelt asked the National Park Service to identify sites within 100 miles of the White House that he could use for rest and picked what is now known as Camp David.

1943 — Roosevelt hosted Winston Churchill, who went on a fishing trip with the president and discussed the Normandy invasion at the retreat.

1953 — Dwight Eisenhower renamed the facility Camp David after his grandson and father.

1959 — Eisenhower hosted Nikita Khrushchev, the first time a Soviet leader had come to the United States.

1971 — Richard Nixon met with economic advisers amid inflation and a looming run on gold, leading eventually to an announcement ending the gold-backed dollar.

1973 — Nixon hosted his Soviet counterpart, Leonid Brezhnev.

1978 — Jimmy Carter hosted Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin, resulting in the Camp David Accords signed in 1979. Unlike at the White House, where journalists come and go, the news media are barred from Camp David, unless they are invited to cover an event, like Friday’s summit.

1984 — Ronald Reagan, the president who spent the most time at Camp David, hosted British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for the first time.

1990 — George H.W. Bush hosted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

1992 — Camp David's only wedding occurred when Bush’s daughter, Dorothy, married Bobby Koch at Evergreen Chapel at the facility.

2000 — Bill Clinton hosted a summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.

2001 — George W. Bush met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair early in the year and held post 9/11 meetings ahead of the Afghanistan invasion later in the year.

2003 — Bush hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin.

2012 — Barack Obama hosted the G8 Summit.

2015 — Obama hosted Persian Gulf nations for a summit.

2019 — Trump canceled a secret weekend meeting at Camp David with Taliban and Afghanistan leaders after a bombing in Kabul that killed 12 people, including an American soldier. ———

Associated Press journalist Darlene Superville contributed archival reporting for this timeline.

FILE - President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, left, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, walk on the grounds of Camp David, Md., Tuesday July 11, 2000, at the start of the Mideast summit. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)

FILE - In this July 1981 file photo released by The White House, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, left, and Vice President George Bush go horseback riding at Camp David, Md. (Michael Evans/The White House, via AP, File)

FILE - From left, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, right, listen as President Barack Obama shows off the grounds at the G-8 Summit Saturday, May 19, 2012 at Camp David, Md. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

FILE - President George W. Bush, left, accompanied by Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, right, gestures during their joint press conference, Monday, Aug. 6, 2007, at Camp David, Md. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - President John Kennedy and former President Dwight Eisenhower walks along a flagstone path, in perfect step at Camp David, atop of mountain near Thurmont, Maryland on April 22, 1961 after they flew there to discuss the Cuban crisis. In background is one of the lodges at the camp. (AP Photo, File)

ROME (AP) — Rock legend Patti Smith was giddy and almost at a loss for words when she met Friday with Pope Leo XIV.

“Hi,” she said softly as she sat down across from Leo at his desk in the Apostolic Palace.

Wearing a crucifix necklace and hair in her trademark braids, Smith has become an increasingly visible presence at the Vatican thanks to her friendship with the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, undersecretary in the Vatican’s culture ministry.

She has said that while she is not Catholic, she was drawn in particular to Pope Francis and his “gentle, open, and steadfast sense of humanity.”

She also had a thing for Pope John Paul I: Her 1979 tune “Wave,” is about a make-believe conversation with the pope who had just died after a 33-day papacy. It begins “Hi. Hi” uttered in the same breathy voice Smith used with Leo on Friday.

The pope clearly was familiar with the tune. “That was marvelous,” he said.

Earlier this year, Smith performed during the inauguration of the Holy See’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale contemporary art fair. The occasion, May 8, was the anniversary of Leo’s election.

Spadaro, who joined Smith at Friday’s audience, said the encounter between the two Chicago natives was around 40 minutes long. In a text message, he said it “felt more like a conversation between two people discovering they were old friends, sharing memories woven from words and music, dreams, visions, and hopes — both from yesterday and for today.”

He said at the end, Smith said “Bye. Bye.”

Smith met Francis in 2013 and sang for him in 2014. When he died, on April 21, 2025, she wrote a poem on social media, comparing Francis to a dandelion, “humble yet strong.”

“Nature and poetry and the suffering shall miss their champion,” she wrote.

It was Leo's second encounter with a music legend this week. On Wednesday, Leo attended a concert in his honor by tenor Andrea Bocelli.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Leo XIV speaks as he attends the "Canticle of Peace" prayer and fraternity meeting at Borgo Laudato Si' in Castel Gandolfo, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) southwest of Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV speaks as he attends the "Canticle of Peace" prayer and fraternity meeting at Borgo Laudato Si' in Castel Gandolfo, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) southwest of Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)