From Teddy Roosevelt to Donald Trump: A History of Presidential Visits to Mobile
Donald Trump became the eighth sitting president to visit Mobile on Friday. Here is a look back at the presidents who came before him — and the future and former presidents who passed through the Port City.
MOBILE, Ala. — When President Donald Trump took the stage at the University of South Alabama’s Mitchell Center on Friday, he became the eighth sitting president to visit Mobile.
The Port City’s history with the American presidency stretches back more than a century, and it includes a speech that historians have called one of the most important of its era, visits in the wake of devastating hurricanes and an oil spill, and a long list of future and former presidents who passed through along the way.
1905: Theodore Roosevelt Draws a Crowd Bigger Than the City
The first visit by a sitting president came on Oct. 23, 1905, when Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Mobile.
Only about 20% of Alabamians had voted for Roosevelt the previous fall, but that didn’t stop the city from turning out. According to a local newspaper account at the time, “Every man, woman, and child who could walk, lined the sidewalks along the parade route or assembled in Bienville Square to await the president’s coming.” The crowd was estimated at 40,000 — more than the city’s population at the time.
Roosevelt stayed in Mobile for about two hours. During that time he dedicated the Masonic Hall on Government Street and gave a speech promoting the United States’ construction of the Panama Canal, a project that would reshape global shipping and was of obvious interest to a port city on the Gulf of Mexico.
1913: Woodrow Wilson and ‘The Wilson Doctrine’
The most significant presidential visit in Mobile’s history came just eight years later. On Oct. 27, 1913, the city welcomed President Woodrow Wilson.
The day began with a state breakfast at the Battle House Hotel, where 180 people paid $7 each to dine with the president. The menu featured pigeon and fried hominy grits.
After breakfast, Wilson rode through the streets of downtown Mobile in a shiny new convertible before addressing a gathering of Southern governors and Latin American dignitaries at the Pan American Economic Conference, held at the Lyric Theater on Conti Street.
In that address, Wilson declared that the United States would never again seek to acquire territory through conquest. The pledge became known as “The Wilson Doctrine,” and it marked a repudiation of Manifest Destiny and the end of the nation’s era of territorial expansion.
“Gradually that policy has been accepted throughout the world,” the late local historian Jay Higginbotham said in 1999. “And except for brief violations, primarily by Germany and Japan, it hasn’t much been violated. This is the reason that Wilson’s speech in Mobile has been regarded as one of the world’s most important speeches of (the) century.”
Before leaving the city, Wilson toured the Mobile docks.
Remarkably, film footage of Wilson’s trip survives. It was recently discovered and restored by the historical group Alabama Pioneers, and the footage is available to view online, offering a rare moving-picture glimpse of Mobile in 1913.
1971: Richard Nixon at the State Docks
After Wilson, Mobile would wait 58 years for another sitting president. In 1971, Richard Nixon came to the Alabama State Docks for the dedication of the Tombigbee Waterway project. He was accompanied by his daughter Julie and son-in-law David Eisenhower, the grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
1976: Gerald Ford, Bear Bryant and George Wallace
Nixon’s successor was the next president to visit. In September 1976, Gerald Ford made a one-hour campaign stop at Mobile Regional Airport.
Ford shared the podium with two of the most popular figures in Alabama at the time: University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant and Gov. George Wallace. Even with that backing, Ford lost Alabama by 15 points in the November election.
1979: Jimmy Carter After Hurricane Frederic
The man who defeated Ford, Jimmy Carter, was the next president to come to Mobile. Carter stopped briefly in the city on Sept. 14, 1979, before surveying the damage from Hurricane Frederic by helicopter. Frederic, which struck the Alabama coast just days earlier, remains one of the most destructive storms in the region’s history.
2005 and 2007: George W. Bush
Another hurricane prompted the next presidential visit. President George W. Bush came to Mobile after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It was at the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile that Bush told FEMA Director Mike Brown, “You’re doing a heck of a job, Brownie” — a remark that would be widely ridiculed in the weeks and months that followed as criticism of the federal response to Katrina mounted.
Bush returned to Mobile two years later, in 2007, for a fundraiser for Senate candidate Jeff Sessions.
2010: Barack Obama After Deepwater Horizon
In 2010, following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama visited a response staging area at the Theodore Industrial Canal. He then took the ferry from Dauphin Island to Fort Morgan to see the effects of the spill up close.
2026: Donald Trump Returns as President
On Friday, Trump became the eighth sitting president to visit Mobile, holding a midterm campaign rally at the University of South Alabama’s Mitchell Center. His connection to the city predates his presidency: in 2015, as a candidate, he held one of the first of his trademark large-scale rallies at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, and he returned to Ladd-Peebles in December 2016 as president-elect.
Future and Former Presidents in Mobile
Mobile’s presidential history extends well beyond the eight sitting presidents. Several others visited the city before or after their time in office:
- Andrew Jackson: General Jackson’s headquarters during the War of 1812 stood on the site of the future Battle House Hotel.
- Martin Van Buren, James K. Polk, Millard Fillmore and James Buchanan: All visited Mobile in the mid-1800s after their presidencies.
- James Garfield: In 1877, then-Congressman Garfield came to Mobile and reportedly had his first mint julep at Oakleigh Mansion. Three years later, he was elected president.
- Ulysses S. Grant: The former president and Union general visited in 1880. According to reports at the time, he received a cool reception from the city’s white residents but a royal welcome from Mobile’s Black community.
- Calvin Coolidge: In 1930, the former president stopped in Mobile during a layover on a cross-country trip and shook hands with travelers at the GM&O Depot.
- Ronald Reagan: Campaigned for president in Mobile in both 1976 and 1980.
- George H.W. Bush: Visited Mobile while serving as Reagan’s vice president.
- Bill Clinton: Came to Mobile in 1990 for the National Governors’ Conference, two years before he was elected president.
Sitting Presidents Who Have Visited Mobile
- Theodore Roosevelt — Oct. 23, 1905
- Woodrow Wilson — Oct. 27, 1913
- Richard Nixon — 1971
- Gerald Ford — September 1976
- Jimmy Carter — Sept. 14, 1979
- George W. Bush — 2005 and 2007
- Barack Obama — 2010
- Donald Trump — Oct. 2, 2026
From a two-hour stop that drew a crowd larger than the city itself to a speech that helped define American foreign policy, Mobile has played a surprising role in presidential history — and Friday’s rally added another chapter.
