Miami’s outgoing mayor celebrates G20 win as he eyes his next career move
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez jetted off Friday to join President Donald Trump in the Oval Office for an announcement that a major international economic forum would be coming to Miami next year.
Having the Group of 20, or G20, summit in South Florida is a feather in the cap of the termed-out mayor, whose 16-year stint in Miami City Hall comes to an end this year.
With the clock ticking on his time as a Miami elected official, Suarez spoke to the Miami Herald on Monday about how he helped bring the global summit to South Florida and his post-mayoral plans.
‘A generational opportunity’
Suarez said the White House contacted him several months ago about the possibility of Miami hosting the annual forum attended by global leaders and that he “jumped on the opportunity” to make it happen.
“It’s very possible this would be the only time in my lifetime that the G20 is held in Miami,” Suarez said, referring to it as “a generational opportunity.”
The biggest hurdle, Suarez said, was working around Art Basel, the annual art festival that takes place in neighboring Miami Beach. Last year’s events drew more than 75,000 attendees, according to the city of Miami Beach. Both G20 and Art Basel take place in December. Suarez’s office said it worked to ensure the two events wouldn’t collide, which could cause mayhem because of an influx of visitors.
While Trump referred to the event as taking place in the city of Miami, it’s actually happening in Doral — home to Trump’s resort — which is a separate municipality with its own mayor. Yet Suarez was the local official who joined Trump for Friday’s announcement.
“He and I have a relationship,” Suarez said of the president. “We’ve had a relationship for years, you know. And I like to think that him and his administration have confidence in my ability to help them do this.”
He also said the city’s “brand” is such that people who are from the broader Miami-Dade region refer to themselves as being from Miami.
“Miami is the second largest city in Florida, and it’s the one that’s known globally, right?” Suarez said, adding that: “That’s the way global events are titled.”
The mayor’s trip to D.C. on Friday meant that he missed a special meeting at City Hall that he had called to have commissioners send two referendums to the November ballot. The meeting was ultimately canceled due to a lack of quorum, and one of Suarez’s legacy projects — the Miami Marine Stadium redevelopment — was indefinitely put on hold due to concerns about the company the city had selected. (Suarez does not have a vote on the five-member City Commission, so his absence did not affect quorum.)
Next steps: Governor? Trump administration?
Now that the city has formally abandoned its effort to postpone the 2025 election to next year, which would have given Suarez an extra year in office, the mayor’s clock is officially running out.
Suarez, a former city commissioner, has been an elected official in Miami since 2009. With his days in City Hall quickly dwindling, Suarez said he still isn’t certain what his post-mayoral plans are.
As recently as last summer, Suarez said he was considering a potential run for Florida governor in 2026. But on Monday, he seemingly ruled it out.
“Not really,” Suarez said when asked if he was still considering vying to be Florida’s top official.
He also said he hasn’t been in talks with Trump officials about a possible job in the administration.
“If there was an opportunity for me to do something that was significant, to serve the president, to serve the country, I would obviously strongly consider it,” Suarez said. He added that he’s “built some relationships globally that could help me be of service to the administration, but obviously it’s up to the administration to decide when and how or if I could help them. I would certainly be open to it.”
What about being U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, a country that Suarez has forged extensive ties with in recent years? Suarez fueled rumors about that possibility during a live interview in May, although the New York Times recently reported that Trump’s advisers have been crafting a plan to nominate New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
“I’d be open to a variety of different things that involve the GCC or the Middle East because I think I’ve acquired a special knowledge and relationships there,” Suarez said Monday. “I don’t know what it would look like, what exactly it would be. But certainly I would be open to it, to having a conversation about it, for sure.”
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