WASHINGTON — Since President Trump called Camp David “very rustic” — it was not a compliment — at the dawn of his presidency, the storied retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland has gone from an overlooked weekend option to yet another stage he has tried to use for maximum presidential effect.

For visiting foreign leaders — the ones he likes, anyway — there is Mar-a-Lago, the palatial Palm Beach, Fla., resort where Mr. Trump spends his winter weekends. When he wants to deliver a speech or major policy announcement, Mr. Trump likes the look (and the natural lighting) of the Rose Garden. When he wants to address the press, he paces about the South Lawn, bickering with reporters before boarding Marine One.

This is what Mr. Trump did on Monday when he defended the optics of his decision to secretly host members of the Taliban, the brutal militant group, at Camp David just days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The president had been seeking a peace agreement to end 18 years of war in Afghanistan, and he chose Camp David as the backdrop.

“Camp David has had many meetings that I guess people would have not considered politically correct,” Mr. Trump said by way of explanation, adding that the retreat had hosted “pretty tough customers and pretty bad people” before.