WASHINGTON — The White House abruptly announced Monday that it had scuttled plans to hold the upcoming G8 economic summit in Chicago and would, instead, host world leaders at the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland.
It was an unusually late location change for a large and highly scripted international summit and came with little explanation from the White House. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — the former White House chief of staff who lobbied President Barack Obama to hold the summit in Chicago — was informed only hours before the official announcement.
White House national security spokesman Tommy Vietor said Camp David, a rustic mountain retreat, was a setting that would allow for more intimate discussions among the Group of Eight leaders during the summit, to be held May 18-19.
He said security and the possibility of protests were not factors in the decision, noting that Obama still would host the NATO summit in his hometown of Chicago on May 20-21.
The White House announced plans last summer to hold the summits back-to-back in Chicago, giving the president a high-profile opportunity to tout his foreign policy and diplomatic credentials on his home turf in an election year.
The idea of moving the G8 to Camp David was raised to the president a few weeks ago, a senior administration official said, adding that the president was intrigued by the novelty of the idea and asked his staff whether they could pull off the change. The official spoke on condition of anonymity about internal White House thinking.
Adding to the curious nature of the White House announcement was the fact that Obama rarely spends time at his presidential retreat. And unlike many of his predecessors, Obama never has hosted a world leader at Camp David.
The announcement appeared to catch many in Chicago by surprise.
A spokeswoman for Emanuel said the Chicago mayor was informed about the location change in a Monday phone call from a White House official.
Chris Johnson, spokesman for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, said his organization was “just as surprised about the announcement as anybody else.”
The world’s eight largest economies are represented in the G8: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
The summits have become a target for large, and sometimes violent, protests in recent years, making security costs a concern for host cities.
