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I've seen articles going around on my Facebook feed, which seem to stem from this article:

For example, as Trump launches his “Thank You” victory tour tonight at a rally in Cincinnati, you may find yourself wondering, “Did Obama have post-victory rallies? Did Bush? What about Clinton?”

Newsweek investigative reporter Kurt Eichenwald wondered the same thing, so he did a little research. He had to go back quite a ways (and quite a distance) to find a similar set of circumstances:

Researched political, non-campaign victory rallies. Found 2: Trump's & Reichsparteitag des Sieges. Yah, it took place in 1930s. In Germany.
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 29, 2016

That’s right, the last time a politician held victory celebrations in his own honor they were called the Nuremberg Rallies. They began after the Nazis’ rise to power in 1933 and became a yearly event emblematic of the power of the regime’s propaganda machine.

Given that most of the people and sites reposting this are staunch Democrats, and the twitter feed they're basing the article off of posted no sources, I am skeptical about this claim. Have other politicians gone on "victory tours" after winning an election? Have any other U.S. presidents?

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    The Nuremberg Rallies were not a victory tour. They were an annual rally held by the Nazi party each year between 1923 and 1938,
    – user22684
    Commented Dec 3, 2016 at 23:43
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    "I've seen articles going around on my Facebook feed" = means it's usually fake.
    – DA01
    Commented Dec 4, 2016 at 6:49
  • Found myself coming back to this question in light of recent events...
    – user812786
    Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 20:40

2 Answers 2

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Ironically, see In Upstate Victory Tour, Mrs. Clinton Says Electoral College Should Go New York Times, November 11, 2000.

Senator-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton, who arrived here this morning from the White House for a victory tour of upstate New York, called for the abolition of the Electoral College. She pledged to be a co-sponsor of legislation that would provide for the direct election of the president and vice president.

According the 12 July 2006 associated press article Calderon Planning Victory Tour, Lopez Obrador Files Challenge:

Mexico's presumptive president elect began forming his transition team Tuesday and announced plans for a victory tour through Mexico, while his opponent finished filing a legal challenge alleging a fraudulent election.

As far as US presidents in a post-election victory tour,

The Chicago Tribune 10 November 1992 article Rested [Bill] Clinton Starts Detailed Work on Transition says:

Stephanopoulus said aids are looking at scheduling a "victory tour", which will put him in touch with people again, possibly before the Jan. 20 inauguration.

Newsweek 1984 says:

Senior White House advisers had been mulling a postelection American Victory Tour that would bring the president's patented patriotic pageantry to such landmarks as Plymouth Rock and Gettysburg. It would have been modeled - believe it or not - after the recent Michael Jackson tour and would have featured a galaxy of mediagenic entertainers. The planned victory tour was finally rejected as too cute and time consuming.

According to Heart of a Wife

In the weeks before his inauguration, Roosevelt took a combination victory tour and vacation

That was 1933 (the last presidential term before the 20th amendment changed inauguration to January).

However, numerous references refer to a 1944 Roosevelt victory tour, such as this congressional publication which says that a 1960 celebration for Eisenhower was:

the greatest turnout that New Yorkers have given any President since that afforded the late Franklin Roosevelt during his famous victory tour of the garment district in 1944 — that one having been basically a staged affair — this one having been basically spontaneous.

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    Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for! Seems this is not nearly as unusual as the claim made it out to be. "Too cute and time consuming" made me laugh.
    – user812786
    Commented Dec 4, 2016 at 23:55
  • Is the whole thing just Facebook fabrication, or did "Newsweek investigative reporter Kurt Eichenwald" actually write such a poorly-researched article?
    – Ask About Monica
    Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 19:34
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    @kbelder Not quite, the "story" is based off of two tweets of his - but I guess "did a little research" is an understatement :P
    – user812786
    Commented Dec 9, 2016 at 14:02
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Did Obama have post-victory rallies?

Obama held a victory speech in 2008 - as many presidents have before him - , which has been called a victory rally by some (but as far as I know nobody has drawn comparisons to Trumps victory rallies, as there are qualitative differences between them).

Obamas rally wasn't a victory tour like Trump is doing now, but neither were the nuremberg rallies (the first one was a celebration of victory, the following ones were yearly political conventions used for propaganda purposes).

I doubt that any US president before Trump went on a victory tour, but the claim is still false, as the nuremberg rallies weren't a victory tour either.

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