Camp David and Air Force One

Camp David is a military installation in Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland, about sixty miles from Washington, formally known as Naval Support Facility Thurmont. Franklin Roosevelt began using it in 1942 as a cooler, more secure retreat than his yacht and called it Shangri-La, and Dwight Eisenhower renamed it for his father and grandson. Presidents use it for rest and for diplomacy, most famously in September 1978, when Jimmy Carter brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel there.

Air Force One is not a single plane but the call sign used by any Air Force aircraft carrying the President. In common use it refers to the two specially modified Boeing 747 aircraft, designated VC-25A, that have served since 1990, operated by the Presidential Airlift Group at Joint Base Andrews. They carry secure communications, a medical suite, and offices, and can be refueled in flight. Marine One is likewise the call sign of any Marine helicopter carrying the President.

Replacing the aging 747s has been slow and contentious. Boeing's contract for two new VC-25B aircraft, signed in 2018, has run years behind schedule and over budget, and in 2025 the administration accepted a 747-8 jet donated by the government of Qatar for conversion into an interim presidential aircraft, a move supporters called practical and critics questioned on ethics, security, and cost grounds.