Twelve United States presidents have made presidential visits to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The first visit by an incumbent president to the United Kingdom was made in December 1918 by Woodrow Wilson, and was an offshoot of American diplomatic interactions with the Principal Allied Powers at the conclusion of World War I prior to the Paris Peace Conference. The first visit by an incumbent president to the island of Ireland was made in June 1963 by John F. Kennedy when he visited the Republic of Ireland. To date, 40 visits have been made to the United Kingdom and 11 to Ireland.
The United States is bound together with both the island of Ireland and the island of Great Britain by shared history, an overlap in religion and a common language and legal system, plus kinship ties that reach back hundreds of years, including kindred, ancestral lines among Cornish Americans, English Americans, Manx Americans, Irish Americans, Scotch-Irish Americans, Scottish Americans, Welsh Americans, and American Britons respectively.
| President | Dates | Country | Locations | Key events | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woodrow Wilson | nowrap rowspan=5 | London, Carlisle, Manchester | Met with King George V and Prime Minister David Lloyd George.[1] | ||
| Harry S. Truman | Plymouth | Informal meeting with King George VI.[2] | |||
| nowrap rowspan=2 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | nowrap | London, Balmoral, Chequers | Informal visit. Met with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and Queen Elizabeth II.[3] | |
| Culzean Castle | Rested before returning to the United States. | ||||
| John F. Kennedy | London | Private visit. Met with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and Queen Elizabeth II.[4] | |||
| First visit to the island of Ireland by an incumbent U.S. President. Addressed the Oireachtas. Visited ancestral home.[5] | |||||
| Birch Grove | Informal visit with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan at his home. | ||||
| Richard Nixon | London | Informal visit. Delivered several public addresses.[6] | |||
| RAF Mildenhall | Informal meeting with Prime Minister Harold Wilson. | ||||
| Chequers | Met informally with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Edward Heath. | ||||
| Limerick, Timahoe, Dublin | State visit. Met with Taoiseach Jack Lynch. | ||||
| Jimmy Carter | London, Newcastle, Sunderland | Attended the 3rd G7 summit. Also met with the Prime Ministers of Greece, Belgium, Turkey, Norway, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and with the President of Portugal. Addressed the NATO Ministers meeting.[7] | |||
| Ronald Reagan | London, Windsor Castle | Met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Addressed Parliament.[8] [9] | |||
| Shannon, Galway, Ballyporeen, Dublin | Met with President Patrick Hillery and Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald. Visited ancestral home. Addressed the Oireachtas. | ||||
| London | Met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Attended the 10th G7 summit. | ||||
| Met with Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita. | |||||
| George H. W. Bush | Met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.[10] | ||||
| Attended NATO Summit Meeting. | |||||
| Attended the 17th G7 summit. Also met with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. | |||||
| Bill Clinton | Cambridge, London, Portsmouth | Visited U.S. Military Cemetery. Met with Prime Minister John Major. Attended state dinner with Queen Elizabeth II and heads of state and government of Canada, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Belgium. Attended the 50th anniversary of D-Day commemorative ceremonies.[11] | |||
| Oxford | Received honorary degree from Oxford University. | ||||
| London, Belfast, Derry | Met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister John Major. Laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. Addressed a joint session of the British Parliament. Became the first incumbent President to visit Northern Ireland, where he made several public addresses before travelling on to the Republic of Ireland. | ||||
| Dublin | Arrived from Northern Ireland. He met with President Mary Robinson and Taoiseach John Bruton. | ||||
| London | Met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and attended a Cabinet meeting. | ||||
| Birmingham, Weston-under-Lizard, London | Attended the 24th G8 summit and the U.S.-EU Summit Meeting. | ||||
| Belfast, Armagh, Omagh | Part of a general visit to the island of Ireland. Met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Northern Irish political leaders. Addressed the Northern Ireland Assembly. | ||||
| Met with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Delivered several public addresses and played golf. | |||||
| Dublin, Dundalk | Met with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Delivered several public addresses. | ||||
| Belfast, London, Coventry | Met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Northern Irish political leaders in Belfast. Met with Queen Elizabeth II; made a speech at the University of Warwick. | ||||
| George W. Bush | London, Chequers, Halton, Brize Norton | Met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth II.[12] | |||
| Belfast, Hillsborough | Only visited Northern Ireland. Met with Prime Minister Tony Blair at Hillsborough Castle to discuss the reconstruction of Iraq. Also met with the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Northern Irish political leaders. | ||||
| London, Sedgefield | State visit. Met with Queen Elizabeth II, laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, gave an address at Banqueting House, and accompanied Prime Minister Blair on a tour of the latter's constituency in Sedgefield. | ||||
| Attended the U.S.-EU summit meeting. Met with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. | |||||
| Gleneagles | Attended the 31st G8 summit. | ||||
| Shannon | Met with U.S. Marines who were en route to Iraq. | ||||
| London, Windsor Castle, Belfast | Met with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. Met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Quartet Representative Tony Blair. In Belfast, met with the Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. | ||||
| Barack Obama | London | Met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Attended the G-20 summit meeting.[13] [14] | |||
| Dublin, Moneygall | Met with President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Visited ancestral home. | ||||
| London | State visit. Met with Queen Elizabeth II. Laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. Addressed a joint session of the British Parliament. Met with Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour Party leader Ed Miliband. | ||||
| Belfast, Lough Erne | Attended the 39th G8 summit in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. | ||||
| Newport | Attended the NATO Summit Meeting. | ||||
| London, Windsor Castle, Watford | Met with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. Met with Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. | ||||
| Donald Trump | London, Blenheim Palace, Chequers, Windsor Castle, Aberdeen, South Ayrshire | Met with Prime Minister Theresa May. Met with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. Spent weekend at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. | |||
| London, Portsmouth | State visit. Met with Queen Elizabeth II. Laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. Met with Prime Minister Theresa May. Attended the 75th anniversary of D-Day commemorative ceremonies. | ||||
| Shannon, County Clare | Met with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Spent one night at his international golf resort in Doonbeg, County Clare. | ||||
| Shannon, County Clare | Spent another night at his international golf resort in Doonbeg. | ||||
| Watford, London | Attended the NATO Summit Meeting. | ||||
| Joe Biden | London, Carbis Bay, Windsor Castle | Attended the 47th G7 summit. Met with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. | |||
| Glasgow | Attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference. | ||||
| London | Attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Met with King Charles III. | ||||
| Belfast | Arrived at Belfast International Airport at Aldergrove. Visited Belfast as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA). Met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Spoke at the new Ulster University campus at York Street in Belfast city centre. | ||||
| Dublin, Carlingford, Dundalk, Knock, Ballina | Met with President Michael D. Higgins, at Áras an Uachtaráin, and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, at Farmleigh House. Addressed the Oireachtas. Visited ancestral homes in County Louth and County Mayo. | ||||
| London, Windsor | Met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Met with King Charles III at Windsor Castle. |