President Trump made an appearance earlier this year at Circa on Fremont Street. Presidents travel to Las Vegas on a fairly regular basis, due to Nevada's status as a swing state and the presence of deep-pocketed political contributors in Sin City. Presidential visits usually favor Strip locations or suburban areas. Before President Trump, when was the last time a sitting president graced Fremont Street with his presence?
Good question, about which we queried our friend Jeff at VintageLasVegas.
He writes, "The only one I can confirm for downtown is Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
"Roosevelt arrived in Las Vegas by train and by car passed through downtown on 9/30/35 for the purpose of seeing the construction of the War Memorial Building, a WPA project. FDR didn't overnight in Las Vegas, despite a hilarious claim made a few years ago by the good folks at Binion's that he spent the night at the Apache Hotel."
Here is some further information that Jeff provided.
"Herbert Hoover didn't visit downtown that I know of, but he did come to the area three times. I found a photo of him captioned as "an unidentified group of people" in Special Collections taken in 1922 when he was Commerce Secretaury visiting Black Canyon (future site of his eponymous dam). He visited the dam construction site in 1932 right after losing the presidential election to FDR and again in 1933 post-presidency.
"Eisenhower wasn't yet president, but he was photographed during the primary campaign on Fremont Street in June 1952.
"From the 1950s-'60s and onward, most if not all of the presidents visited Las Vegas at one time or another, but never downtown that I know of."
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Robert
Aug-28-2025
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O2bnVegas
Aug-28-2025
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black jack
Aug-28-2025
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