Eleven United States presidents have made presidential visits to Puerto Rico since the islands became a U.S. territory in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War of 1898, which ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The eleventh and most recent visit was by President Joe Biden on October 3, 2022, after Hurricane Fiona devastated center and southern and western parts of the island. The tenth visit was by President Donald Trump on October 3, 2017. Nine presidents are honored by life-sized bronze statues commissioned and placed in a linear park, called Paseo de los Presidentes, on the south side of the Puerto Rico Capitol in San Juan.
Official visits
Official visits are formal visits (official visit) to the local government, during which the president acts as an official attendee of the local government at a public ceremony. Some official visits may also be surveying damage after a natural disaster.
Theodore Roosevelt
President Theodore Roosevelt was the first sitting president to visit Puerto Rico arriving on the USS Louisiana (BB 19) on November 21, 1906, after inspecting the Panama Canal. A bronze statue and plaque commemorating his visit is on public view at the Paseo de los Presidentes on the south side of the Capitol of Puerto Rico.
Herbert Hoover
President Herbert Hoover was the second president to visit America's most populated territory during March 1931 on board the USS Arizona (BB 39) which called at Ponce. His bronze statue was unveiled in 2008 by his great-granddaughter, Fox News commentator Margaret Hoover and then-Senate President Kenneth McClintock and subsequently installed with a bronze plaque by Senate President Thomas Rivera-Schatz and House Speaker Jenniffer González-Colón at the Paseo de los Presidentes.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Puerto Rico during July 6–7, 1934 on board the USS Houston (CA 30). The commemorative statue honoring his visit was unveiled in April, 2008 by the 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton, then-Senate President McClintock and House Speaker José Aponte-Hernández. The statue is believed to be only the third to depict him sitting in a wheelchair (the other two are located in the FDR Memorial in Washington, DC). Next to his statue, there is a bronze depiction of his pet dog, Fala. The statue, the bronze depiction of the dog and a plaque were subsequently installed by Senate President Rivera-Schatz and Speaker González-Colón at the Paseo de los Presidentes.
John F. Kennedy
President John F. Kennedy and his wife visited Puerto Rico on December 15–16, 1961, arriving in a VC-137A, spending the night as guests of Gov. Luis Muñoz Marín at La Fortaleza, the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere. The guest bedroom in which he stayed subsequently became known as the "Kennedy Bedroom". On December 16 they continued the flight to Venezuela. Upon the completion of the South American tour, they flew from Colombia to Ramey AFB for a refuel stop on December 18 and continued to Palm Beach, Florida. Kennedy did not leave the aircraft during that stop at Ramey. Until President Obama's June 14, 2011, trip to Puerto Rico, for over 49 years Kennedy's visit, which included a motorcade in addition to the visit to the governor's mansion, had been considered the last official visit by a sitting president at the time, notwithstanding President Johnson's private visit in 1968 to Ramey AFB in Aguadilla and President Ford's attendance at the 1976 G-7 summit in Dorado. Then-Senator Kennedy had previously visited Puerto Rico while on the presidential campaign trail, even though he had not yet announced his candidacy, giving a speech titled "A New Attitude on Latin America" at a Democratic-fundraising dinner in San Juan on December 15, 1958.