Nine United States presidents and one president-elect have made presidential visits to the Caribbean since 1928. Franklin D. Roosevelt made the most trips to the Caribbean islands (14), either for vacation or while involved with Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. Of the 13 sovereign countries in the region, four—Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines—have not as of yet been visited by an American president.
Note: This table does not include presidential visits to places that are part of the United States.
| President | Dates | Country or territory | Locations | Key details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warren G. Harding [1] | November 30, 1920 |  Jamaica | Kingston | Stopped while returning to the U.S. from Panama. (Visit made as President-elect.) |
| Calvin Coolidge [2] | January 15–17, 1928 |  Cuba | Havana | Met with President Gerardo Machado. [3] Addressed the Sixth International Conference of American States. [4] |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt [5] | February 6–14, 1933 |  Bahamas | Fishing trip. (Visit made as President-elect.) | |
| March 29 – April 11, 1934 | Elbow Cay, Gun Cay [6] | Fishing trip. | ||
| July 5–6, 1934 |  Haiti | Cap-Haïtien | Informal visit en route to vacation in Hawaii. | |
| March 27 – April 6, 1935 | Bahamas | Cat Cays, Lobos Cay, Great Inagua Island, Crooked Island [6] | Fishing trip. | |
| March 24 – April 7, 1936 | Nassau, Great Inagua Island | Fishing trip. Luncheon with Governor Bede Clifford and the President of the Legislative Council, George Johnson. [7] | ||
November 21, 1936 |  Trinidad and Tobago | Port of Spain | Stopped on the way to South America. | |
| December 11, 1936 | Stopped while returning to the United States. | |||
| December 5, 1940 | Jamaica | Kingston | Inspected British base sites for possible American use. | |
| December 8, 1940 |  Saint Lucia | Inspected British base sites for possible American use. | ||
| December 8, 1940 |  Martinique | Fort Saint Louis | Conferred with U.S. officials. | |
| December 9, 1940 |  British Leeward Islands | Antigua | Inspected British base sites for possible American use. | |
| December 12–13, 1940 | Bahamas | Eleuthera Island | Inspected British base sites for possible American use. Met with the Governor, H.R.H. the Duke of Windsor. | |
| January 11, 1943 | Trinidad and Tobago | Port of Spain | Overnight stop en route to Casablanca. | |
| January 29, 1943 | Port of Spain | Overnight stop en route home from the Casablanca Conference. | ||
| John F. Kennedy [8] | December 18–21, 1962 | Bahamas | Nassau | Conferred with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Concluded Nassau Agreement on nuclear defense systems. |
| Gerald Ford [9] | December 14–16, 1974 | Martinique | Fort-de-France | Met with President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing |
| Jimmy Carter [10] | January 4–9, 1979 | Guadeloupe | Basse-Terre | Met informally with President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and British Prime Minister James Callaghan. |
| Ronald Reagan [11] | April 7–8, 1982 |  Jamaica | Kingston | Official Visit. Met with Prime Minister Edward Seaga. |
| April 8–11, 1982 |  Barbados | Bridgetown | Official Visit. Met with the Prime Ministers of Barbados, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Christopher and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. | |
| February 20, 1986 |  Grenada | St. George's | Met with Governor General Paul Scoon and Prime Minister Herbert Blaize, and with the Prime Ministers of Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Christopher and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, and Trinidad and Tobago. Dedicated a memorial to U.S. servicemen. | |
| George H. W. Bush [12] | December 16, 1989 | Saint Martin | Marigot | Informal meeting with President François Mitterrand. |
| March 14, 1991 | Martinique | Fort-de-France | Discussed the Middle East peace process with President François Mitterrand. | |
| Bill Clinton [13] | March 31, 1995 | Haiti | Port-au-Prince | Attended transition ceremony for United Nations Mission in Haiti. |
| May 9–11, 1997 | Barbados | Bridgetown | Attended the U.S.-Caribbean Community summit meeting. Signed the Partnership for Prosperity and Security in the Caribbean pact. | |
| Barack Obama | April 17–18, 2009 |  Trinidad and Tobago | Port of Spain | Attended the 5th Summit of the Americas. [14] |
| April 9–10, 2015 | Jamaica | Kingston | Met with Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller. Visited the Bob Marley Museum. Attended a town hall meeting at the University of the West Indies. Laid wreath at the National Heroes Park. [15] [16] | |
| March 20–22, 2016 | Cuba | Havana | Official visit. Met with President Raúl Castro. Laid a wreath at the José Martí Memorial. Addressed Cuban civil society organizations at the Gran Teatro de La Habana. Toured Old Havana and visited the Havana Cathedral. [17] Attended an exhibition baseball game between the Cuba national baseball team and the Tampa Bay Rays. [18] |
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There have been 40 United States presidential visits to Canada by 13 presidents over the past century. As the U.S. president is both head of state and head of government, these visits have taken many forms, ranging from formal state visits, to official visits, working visits, or private visits.
Fifteen presidents of the United States have made thirty-four presidential visits to Mexico. The first visit by an incumbent president to Mexico was made in 1909 by William Howard Taft. It was only the second time in U.S. history that a president left the country while in office.
The United States has formal diplomatic relations with most nations. This includes all UN member and observer states other than Bhutan, Iran, North Korea and Syria, and the UN observer State of Palestine, the last of which the U.S. does not recognize. Additionally, the U.S. has diplomatic relations with Kosovo and the European Union.
Six United States presidents have made presidential visits to Sub-Saharan Africa. The first was an offshoot of Franklin D. Roosevelt's secretive World War II trip to French Morocco for the Casablanca Conference. More recently, Barack Obama, the first U.S. president with African American ancestry, visited his father's native Kenya in 2015. Of the 46 African nations identified as sub-Saharan by the United Nations, 14 have been visited by an American president.
Ten United States presidents have made presidential visits to Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. The first trip by an incumbent president to Eastern Europe was made by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, to the Soviet Union, and was an offshoot of Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. The first trip by an incumbent president to Northern Asia was made by Gerald Ford in 1974, also to the Soviet Union, and was an offshoot of U.S.–Soviet Détente during the Cold War. The first presidential visits to other Eastern European countries occurred during this era of easing geo-political tensions as well.
Several United States presidents have made presidential visits to Australia and New Zealand. The first visit by an incumbent to these Australasian nations was made in 1966 by Lyndon B. Johnson. His three-day five-city visit to Australia was intended as a show of gratitude to the Australian nation for its then emphatic support for the Vietnam War. Four presidents have traveled there since. Prior to arriving in Australia, Johnson visited New Zealand. He went primarily to shore up support for the war in Vietnam. Only one sitting president has visited since.
Eleven United States presidents and three presidents-elect have made thirty-four presidential visits to Central America. The first visit by an incumbent president to a country in Central America was made in 1906 by Theodore Roosevelt. The trip, to Panama, was the first international presidential trip in U.S. history, and signaled the start of a new era in how presidents conducted diplomatic relations with other countries. In 1928, Herbert Hoover, during the time when he was president-elect, visited the region during his historic "good will" trip, to Central and South America.
Nine presidents of the United States have made presidential visits to North Africa. The first trips by a sitting president to countries in North Africa were those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and were an offshoot of Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. Of the five countries in the region, only Libya has not yet been visited by an American president.
Ten United States presidents have made presidential visits to the Middle East. The first trips by an incumbent president to countries in the Middle East were those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and were an offshoot of Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. To date, 16 visits have been made to Egypt, 12 to Saudi Arabia, 11 to Israel, six to both Iraq, Jordan and Turkey, four to Iran, three to the Palestinian Territories, two to both Kuwait and Syria, one to Bahrain, Georgia, Oman, Qatar, and to the United Arab Emirates. No incumbent American president has yet visited Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Yemen.
Eleven United States presidents and one president-elect have made presidential visits to South America. The first trip was made by Herbert Hoover in 1928. During this tour he delivered twenty-five speeches in ten Central and South American countries, almost all of which stressed his plans to reduce American political and military interference in Latin American affairs. In sum, he pledged that the United States would act as a "good neighbor."
Eight presidents of the United States have made presidential visits to South Asia. The first trip by a sitting president to South Asia was by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959. Of the eight countries in the region, only 4 of them have been visited by a sitting American president: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The other four countries, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, have never been visited by a sitting American president.
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The following lists events that happened during 2022 in the Caribbean.
