What is the meaing of "for" as in "a rare visit for somebody”

Question

Trump seeks to project confidence on economy at New Hampshire rally

The rally marked a rare visit for the president to a state won by Democratic contender Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race.

This "visit for the president" definitely is not "somebody made a visit for Trump."

So I wonder what that "for" exactly mean.

I looked up longman dict, but there are tons of meanings for "for".

Answer 1

This use of the word "for" is unusual, but it is correct.

It is rare for X to do Y

Here are some simpler examples that show the usage of "for" in this way:

✔️ Yes: It is rare for Twitter to ban specific advertisers.

-- Jim Finkle, David Ingram, Reuters News Service, 2018

✔️ Yes: It is rare for a player to combine the skills of power and speed.

-- Baseball Hall of Fame (on Facebook)

✔️ Yes: It is a rare instance for a player to combine the skills of power and speed.

-- Kevin Stiner, "Ott’s first career home run an inside-the-park shot", Baseball Hall of Fame

✔️ Yes: It is rare for a ballet's storyline to be overshadowed by science. So it is with “Anastasia”

-- The Economist, on Twitter

✔️ Yes: ..it is rare for a government entity to directly criticize a sitting member of Congress.

-- Julie Hirschfeld Davis, The New York Times

This is from a news headline, so it uses abbreviated "headline-speak":

✔️ Yes: Minnesota man catches a mystery fish; Rare for its color, remarkable for its age

-- KSTP-TV, Minnesota, USA

They are saying "the fish is rare {for its color}". Its color is unusual, so that makes the fish a rare fish.

The color makes the fish rare.

In Your Example

Your example was:

The rally marked a rare visit for the president to {a state won by Democratic contender Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race}.

This can be reduced to:

The rally marked a rare visit for the president to {New Hampshire}.

This can be simplified to:

{This was} a rare visit for the president to New Hampshire.

which is a complicated way of saying:

It is rare for the president to visit New Hampshire.