As his second mayoral term comes to a close this year, Francis Suarez, who’s spent 16 years in Miami city government, first as a commissioner and then as mayor, prepares to hand off a city that’s recast itself as a national and global magnet for business, culture, and politics.
“What we’re seeing in Miami is an evolution from what was before known as sort of the capital of Latin America to what I consider to be a truly great American and global city,” Suarez told Newsweek. “And I think we’re seeing that evidenced by these events, starting with American Business Forum.”
Miami’s Upcoming Global Circuit
Long the land of Cuban cigars, bachelorette weekends, cruises, Art Basel and big-ticket sports, Miami, also known as the Magic City, is keeping its vibrant nightlife and cultural scene while layering in more formal political and business convenings. The city already anchors large events, from the music festival, Ultra, and the Miami Open to a Super Bowl tally tied for the most of any U.S. metro, and it’s increasingly adding high-level summits to the calendar, as well as attracting more and more high-profile people.
Next month, hundreds of global business, technology and sports leaders and rising stars will convene in the Miami Heat’s arena for American Business Forum (ABF). Speakers include soccer icon Lionel Messi, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, CEO of JP Morgan Chase Jamie Dimon, and Citadel founder Ken Griffin.
Suarez emphasized that while the speaker list is of the same “caliber” as global conferences like Davos, “it’s more democratized,” as people can buy more affordable tickets. Tickets for the two-day event start at $250, with Diamond access priced at up to $10,000, including private access and networking.
In addition to the prestige of hosting these events, Suarez emphasized that they are going to greatly boost the average Miamian, with the local economy being heavily stimulated by booked out hotels and restaurants. He emphasized that the events are not just about their content and capacity, “it’s about what they do for the city. Miami in 2026 is going to be the place to be.”
Suarez described ABF as “a conversation about why America is special, why Miami is special in many ways,” noting that “a lot of these people have Miami roots.”
ABF comes ahead of a packed slate of global events in the city, with Miami to host seven FIFA World Cup matches in 2026, including the bronze final, as well as dipping into international diplomacy by convening the Group of 20 (G20).
The G20 is an international forum that brings together the world’s major economies to discuss global economic policy, trade, and financial stability. Founded in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis, it includes 19 countries as well as the European Union and African Union, representing about 85 percent of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population.
The United States hasn’t hosted the G20 since 2009, and Miami will host the first ever to be held in the Southern U.S. During his first presidential term, Trump proposed hosting it at his Doral golf resort, and next year it is slated to be held there. The White House has said the Trump property will host the summit “at-cost and will receive no profit from either the State Department or a foreign government.”
Florida officials also recently approved a plan to build the Trump presidential library in Miami, further cascading the city in a political light.
Behind Miami’s Evolution
“We’ve done something at the macro level that is the hardest thing to do, which is to change the perception of a city,” Suarez said. “We are creating the premium quality of life ecosystem in America, and we’re seeing the results,” the mayor added, pointing to the city’s gravitational pull of millionaires, investors, and celebrities, as the city seeks to “invest in all the offerings, whether its sports, public spaces or cultural institutions.”
He touted the city’s statistics, noting that from his start in City Hall in 2009 Miami was bleeding money and now has healthy reserves. He also pointed to the city having one of the lowest unemployment rates of big cities, nation-leading wage gains between 2020-23, a reduction in unsheltered individuals, and on the “precipice of having the lowest homicide rate ever.”
“I joke and I say, if you’re happy, you’re healthy, you’re working, you’re probably not committing violent crime,” Suarez said.
He attributed these noticeable statistical changes to the city’s governing ideology, “We follow three simple rules: We keep taxes low, we keep people safe, and we lean into innovation.” Florida has long lured high earners with its no-income-tax policy, and earlier this year, Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” sweetened the deal for many taxpayers by lifting the federal SALT cap to as much as $40,000.
Outside of financial incentives, Miami’s political rise isn’t accidental, as the president’s frequent stops at his Florida properties have helped pull the spotlight south. As Suarez puts it, the shift is “amplified by the president.”
“I think he sees what we see. He sees a functioning American city with low crime, low taxes and high quality of life,” he said, adding that the president wants to celebrate the city as “part of his America First agenda.”
The mayor signaled that others are noticing Miami’s offerings, particularly in comparison to New York, noting that ABF is happening the day after the New York City mayoral election, which Suarez says is “very relevant, because there’s an interesting juxtaposition in the direction that New York is going and the direction that Miami is going.”
Beyond the mayoral field, with progressive Democrat Zohran Mamdani leading the polls which has concerned many Republicans, Suarez pointed to Amazon’s 2019 pullout from a proposed Queens headquarters after protests and council resistance to tax breaks, as a clear divide between how New York and Miami operate.
“I think we just had a different attitude,” Suarez said about business incentives and trying to grow Miami. He reiterated that “fact that we were pro-innovation in a moment where other major American cities were sort of pushing away innovation,” adding that the city wants to “create the best ecosystem” to encourage more business and growth.
Suarez noted in his early days he saw “a lot of my contemporaries leave,” going to Ivy League schools, New York City for finance, Silicon Valley for tech, and Washington D.C. for politics. But now, as adults with families, they “are choosing Miami,” he said.
Immigration Pathways
“A lot of people leave their country of origin to come to Miami. Seventy percent of Miami were not born in Miami, I’m the anomaly,” Suarez, who is the first Miami-born mayor, said. According to Miami-Dade County statistics, closer to 54 percent of residents are foreign born, with over two-thirds Hispanic or Latino.
In reference to National Guard troops and a federal influx of immigration officers across the nation, Suarez said that “a lot of this stuff that you’re seeing in other cities is not happening in Miami.” The city has largely avoided the brunt of the immigration limelight somehow, with Chicago in full focus in recent days. However, the administration launched its largest joint immigration operation in Florida history in May, arresting “1,120 criminal illegal aliens,” according to the Miami Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).
A Republican with Cuban roots, Suarez said that “immigration is a multi-decade issue that this country has been grappling with. And it’s not one that you can necessarily blame on one party versus the other party.”
He noted that the president has kept his promises on immigration, such as securing the border.
“At some point, I think you’ve got to have a broader conversation—what is the right legal immigration? I think everybody who’s in this country would like to be in this country legally,” he said. “If you have illegal immigration that’s pegged to some objective metrics,” he said pointing to statistics that are indicators of the “health of the country,” such as declining birth rate, growth, unemployment, “we may be able to rightsize legal immigration in a way that incentivizes people who are here, undocumented or illegally, to go back to their home country and come back the right way, because they want that.”
Suarez added: “Nobody wants to live in the shadows. No one wants to be afraid,” and said he hopes lawmakers will put forward a better, comprehensive solution to legal immigration.
Suarez’s Exit From City Hall
Suarez, the son of the former mayor, Xavier Suarez, and himself a one-time, short-lived presidential candidate, is contemplating his next move, and it may not be in the realm of politics.
While he has a “passion” for serving and problem-solving as mayor, he recognizes that politics is “becoming increasingly nasty and increasingly divisive and increasingly difficult for people of good conscience to want to serve.”
Suarez is expected to keep up his legal practice in the meantime; however, he noted that “the opportunity to serve your country is one that you don’t take lightly. At the same time, I still have a family, and my wife reigns supreme.”
Interview With Francis Suarez
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
There’s a lot going on in Miami and I want to touch base on a couple of these big events and how Miami is sort of positioning itself in both the national and global scale. You have the 2026 World Cup, G20, American Business Forum all coming up. Let’s start with the American Business Forum, which is coming next month to Miami. What is it and why is Miami best positioned for it?
Mayor Suarez: I think what we’re seeing in Miami is an evolution, from what was before known as sort of the capital of Latin America to what I consider to be a truly great American and global city. And I think we’re seeing that evidenced by these events that you’re referring to, starting with American Business Forum. American Business Forum is going to be on November 5th and 6th at the Kaseya Center.
So, there’s never really been anything of its kind, it’s sort of the caliber of speaker that you would find in a Davos or in one of these main, global conferences, but it’s more democratized. So, people can buy tickets, and the tickets are very affordable. You can see those caliber of people talking about how they were successful, what are they focusing on and working on today and how they view the future, which is what I think everybody’s interested in. Right? You want to see the collection of the greatest minds in a variety of different, environments, whether it’s sports, we have obviously Lionel Messi, we have Rafael Nadal, we may have some awesome surprises between now and November 5th and 6th.
In business, you have Ken Griffin, you have Eric Schmidt, who is the former CEO of Google, and still very involved in a variety of AI [artificial intelligence] projects globally. You have Jamie Dimon from JP Morgan Chase.
When you talk about sports management and managing sports leagues, you have Gianni Infantino, Stefano Domenicali, we’re working on again some other surprises.
So, it’s a conversation about why America is special, why Miami is special in many ways. A lot of these people have Miami roots, when you talk about Lionel Messi who lives in Miami, when you talk about Gianni Infantino who not only lives in Miami but made Miami the headquarters for World Cup 2026.
I think these series of events, as you said, are positioning Miami going into 2026 to host two major global events. So, event number one is, of course, the World Cup, we have, seven games, which is, I think the second most in the entire tournament. We have the bronze medal game, and we’re also the headquarters for the World Cup. So, it’s really just an incredible moment for Miami to take this next step.
I think it’s interesting to go back to America Business Forum. It’s happening the day after the New York [City] election. And I think that’s very relevant, because I think there’s an interesting juxtaposition in the direction that New York is going and the direction that Miami is going. If I can brag about Miami just for a little bit, we’ve created an ecosystem that has the lowest unemployment in America, highest median wage growth in America, has attracted trillions of dollars in capital in companies that manage trillions of dollars in capital increase our venture capital pipeline by hundreds of percentages. And that has a lot of social benefits.
For example, we’re on the precipice right now, we’re still not at the end of the year, so I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch, but we’re on the precipice of having the lowest homicide rate ever. We have 21 year-to-date, our lowest ever was 24, and our highest ever was 220. It’s a big difference, a 90 percent reduction from our high watermark of the 1980s.
And then you have homelessness, which we have now at a 11-year low of 536 unsheltered homeless in our city, something that we’re very proud of in terms of wanting to become one of the major cities in America with zero homeless, that’s our goal. Our goal is to be what we call a functional zero, my functional zero plan.
I think those are two metrics that demonstrate how we’re also taking care of the most vulnerable. Having a low unemployment rate, less than 2 percent, as of the last statistics, which show that people in Miami are working. I like to focus sometimes on qualitative measurements, which are hard to quantify, but these qualitative things like we were ranked the happiest city in America and also the healthiest city in America. So, I kind of sometimes joke and I say, if you’re happy, you’re healthy, you’re working, you’re probably not committing violent crime.
Which is why in Part I crimes, which are the most violent crimes, rapes, assaults, contact shootings are all down 20 percent overall from last year, which was a very, very low year as well. So that’s sort of the offering that is and the context for the America Business Forum, that’s the context for World Cup.
A few weeks ago, I was in the Oval Office with the president, announcing the G20 in Miami. So, the G20 is probably the most important meeting in the world at any given moment, every year. And for Miami to host it, I think it’s an incredible kudos to us. I’m 47 years old…the chance that it may happen again in my lifetime is slim. So, I look at this as a generational opportunity for us to showcase our city. And continue along the lines of building on the progress we’ve made in my eight years as mayor and having this transition to becoming a great global city.
These metrics—crime’s down, homelessness down, high employment—what do you attribute that really to? What’s at the core of those policies that are getting those metrics?
Mayor Suarez: To me, the core is that we follow three simple rules: We keep taxes low, we keep people safe, and we lean into innovation. We’ve kept taxes low, we don’t have state income taxes, everyone knows that the SALT deduction going away, I think it was a major game changer in addition to COVID and the fact that we were pro-innovation in a moment where other major American cities, let’s say the Goliaths in the David and Goliath story, we’re sort of pushing away innovation.
You got New York that competed for and won the Amazon HQ2 price and then said, ‘no, thank you.’ And to me, the signal is more important, right? The signal is, not that you just lose the 50,000 high paying jobs, some of which could have gone to residents, and would have influenced small businesses. Obviously, when you have people, of high income that are living in a particular ecosystem that trickles down and benefits a lot of people, sort of a rising tide lifts all boats scenario.
And then in California, you had an elected official basically saying ‘eff’ Elon Musk. And then he said message received and left to Austin [Texas].
At the same time in December 2020, someone put out a tweet that said, ‘What if we move Silicon Valley to Miami?’ And I responded, ‘How can I help?’ So, I think we just had a different attitude. I saw as a lifelong Miamian [and] the first Miami born mayor in history, I saw a lot of my contemporaries leave. They went to great schools up north, Stanford, MIT, Yale, Harvard, you name it, my contemporaries went there, and many times they didn’t come back.
If they wanted to do private equity, they stayed in New York for finance. If they wanted to do tech, they would go to the Valley. If they wanted to do politics, they’d go to DC. And I think for the first time in my lifetime, a lot of those adults and now they’re adults with kids, and are choosing Miami.
People like Lionel Messi, people like Tom Brady, people like Jeff Bezos, they’re all choosing to live in Miami where they can live anywhere in the world. And so I think we’ve created an offering with culture, sports, entertainment, stuff that we’re covering in a in American Business Forum, frankly, that has attracted people that could live anywhere in the world, sometimes at an economic loss writing we saw with Messi, he refused a $250 million contract from Saudi Arabia to come live in Miami, with an interestingly structured contract. I think we are creating the premium quality of life ecosystem in America and we’re seeing the results.
You’ve mentioned New York a couple times—Do you feel like Miami is now sort of overcoming New York? Is that how you perceive it?
Mayor Suarez: I don’t know. I mean, from my perspective, we don’t try to be competitive per se. It is at some level a zero-sum game. And so far, as if people leave, like for example, I talked to a lot of Chicagoans who constantly complain that Ken Griffin left Chicago and came to Miami. Right? So obviously their loss is our gain. He’s become one of the most prolific philanthropists in our community, he’s donated hundreds of millions of dollars. He will also be at the American Business Forum. There’s definitely some of that and I think we’ve never really looked at it that way. Our view is we want to try to create the best ecosystem, there’s a consequence of that.
By the way, it’s not just people leaving New York, in fairness, or Chicago or San Francisco or L.A. They also leave South America. A lot of people leave their country of origin to come to Miami. Seventy percent of Miami were not born in Miami. I’m the anomaly, right? I’m the first Miami born mayor. My dad was the first Cuban mayor. So, we just look at it as the world is dynamic, it’s changing rapidly. We’re seeing a shift from a highly industrial world to an increasingly digital world.
And I’m a father of two, I have an 11-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter. And I want to make sure they have the best chance of succeeding. I’m trying to build a city that we call a magnet for everyone. That gives everyone the best opportunity to be successful. And you do that with a comprehensive strategy.
Do you think that President Donald Trump and his Miami ties has sort of accelerated this, or if it was kind of the start of Miami becoming really more politically engaged. Do you see G20 as something that Miami was sort of already working towards, and it was just amplified by President Trump or if those are separate and it just happens to be a coincidence in timing?
Mayor Suarez: No, I think I think they’re amplified by the president. I think he sees what we see. He’s sees a functioning American city with low crime, low taxes and high quality of life. And he wants to accentuate that. He wants to celebrate that as part of his America First agenda. I think that’s part of it. And we also got the presidential library. And that’s important because there haven’t been 50 presidents in the history of the United States. So to have a presidential library, which will be a cultural destination, a tourist destination, a place where people are going to want to come from across the country. It’s a big deal for us.
We want to invest in all of the offerings, right? Whether it’s sports, whether it’s public spaces, whether it’s cultural institutions. I think what really makes a great city and I think why New York has traditionally been known as a great city is because they have a lot of these offerings, right? I mean, you can go see a great show in New York. There’s a lot of things that you can do there.
I’m obviously worried about the direction that they’re going or that they seem to be heading in. And I think the unfortunate consequence of that, is that Miami will see a spike influx, potentially into real estate prices. Which is something that our Miamians sometimes are not too thrilled about, to be honest. There’s no border in Miami. We can’t prevent people from coming. As Ken Griffin once said, we have the problems of prosperity, right? The problems of prosperity are that that there’s a lot of demand that people want to come here and of course that creates some challenges. It’ll be interesting to see how all that evolves over the next decade. But I’m very bullish on our city.
There’s been a lot of jurisdictional back-and-forth between the federal government right now between federal troops, immigration authorities, mayors and governors. Do you have any comment on how that read is in Miami? How is that operating?
Mayor Suarez: Well, the read is good in Miami because that’s not happening here. Right? Where there’s no federal troops here. And so a lot of this stuff that you’re seeing in other cities is not happening in Miami. I was president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, president of all the mayors in the U.S. And I find it interesting that in Washington, D.C., where there were federal troops that were marshaled, the Democratic mayor was happy about it. Right? Maybe initially not so great, but then kind of came around to it because all mayors want the same thing: We all want our cities to be safe, we all want our residents to be able to enjoy themselves and to be prosperous.
Regardless of party, regardless of your philosophy, we may have different ideas on how to get there, but it’s the same idea, right? We want everyone to do well. And I think at the end of the day, regardless of who’s helping you, if someone’s helping you get there, you should welcome them.
In Miami, there are many immigrants, many that are there with valid documentation as well. Has there been any sort of pushback in how the Trump administration is handling immigration?
Mayor Suarez: I think we all know that immigration is a multi-decade issue that this country has been grappling with. And it’s not one that you can necessarily blame on one party versus the other party. I personally believe that at some point the president will pivot to that issue, obviously he has the midterms next year. He passed a big, beautiful bill there dealing with a budget and a budgetary crisis with a shutdown in the government. But I do think at some point he’s going to focus on it…He’s done a good job, in my opinion, in solving major issues. And he’s had the ability to bring Republicans along. And on some of these immigration promises, he’s kept them, whether you like them or not, he’s kept the promise. He’s secured the border. Illegal crossings on the border are down significantly. I was looking at a statistic that showed you might even have net migration for the first time in I don’t know how many decades.
We’re seeing a tremendous amount of human trafficking and fentanyl that was being brought in, which was badly affecting northern cities. I remember when I ran for president briefly in New Hampshire, people talking about fentanyl in New Hampshire, I mean, the opposite extreme of the Mexican border. So, this is this is an issue that was real.
I think Democrats underestimated how real the issue was. I think at the end, [former President Joe] Biden tried to pivot and look to the issue. But I think it ultimately cost Democrats the election.
And then at some point, I think you’ve got to have a broader conversation like what is the right legal immigration? I think everybody who’s in this country would like to be in this country legally. I think that’s a fair statement.
And I think, if you have illegal immigration that’s pegged to some objective metrics like say our declining birth rate, say growth, unemployment, things that are related to the health of the country. We may be able to rightsize legal immigration in a way that incentivizes people who are here, undocumented or illegally, to go back to their home country and come back the right way because they want that. Everybody wants that. Nobody wants to live in the shadows. No one wants to be afraid. That’s my hope that is what’s going to happen. I think the country’s asking for it. And I know there are many attempts by both parties over the years to try to get something like that done. And then there’s these little, sort of, smaller efforts to legalize X or Y or Z, fill in the blank. But I think it’s crucial for a comprehensive solution that is a long-term solution.
You just noted this, you previously ran for president and your mayoral term is coming to a close soon. I’m curious if you have any future political aspirations?
Mayor Suarez: I get that question pretty much every day, which is funny because I was thinking about it this morning and I never really said this. It’s interesting how everyone always assumes there’s going to be something else, right? We’re in the rat race—16 years. It’s a third of my life. So, there must be like, some master plan, right? To go to the next political thing.
I’ll say this. And this is what I’ve said consistently. Number one, I’m blessed because I’m able to work in the private sector as mayor, which is unusual for big city mayors. But it’s allowed me to make a living and provide for my family. And that’s something that as you elevate in politics, it’s hard to do right? It’s something you may have to give up.
So for me, it would have to be something very significant because as I mentioned, my kids are young, 11 and 7. They’re still in elementary and a grade school. And so that’s going to obviously shape whatever it is that I decided to do.
Do I love serving? Yes! Do I enjoy problem solving, ecosystem building, you know, all the things that I enjoy doing as mayor. Absolutely, I love it. I have a passion for it. I think it’s one of the best, you know, maybe I’m naive. I think it’s one of the best callings.
I do think it’s becoming increasingly nasty and increasingly divisive and increasingly difficult for people of good conscience to want to serve. And that’s a problem that we have in our country. And that’s one that I hope in the next generation because we’re still sort of in the boomer generation at some level. I think in the next generation, my hope and prayer for the country is that we find a way to manage that better.
Obviously, the other issue, I think that people are struggling with is what’s true? We live in a world now where it’s hard to know what’s true, what is the right source of information? Who’s fact checking properly? What’s spin and what’s real? So, I think that those are things with all the technology that we’re seeing, all the disruption technology entering, it’s interesting to see how it plays out, and that might create some opportunities to serve in the future.
But I don’t have, like, one thing where I’m like, oh, I’m gonna do this or I’m gonna do that. People often ask me about governor. The president has weighed in. You know, I’m a Republican. He’s weighed in on the Republican side with it. You know, with Byron Donalds, who I think highly of and I think he’s got a great chance to be the governor of the state of Florida. People have talked about other positions from the administration. Obviously, I would consider them. The opportunity to serve your country is one that you don’t take lightly. At the same time, like I said, I still have a family, so I have to my wife, my wife reigns supreme there.
I just wanted to circle back to just put a final point on all of these events that are happening in Miami. What is Miami going to have to do logistically to prepare for these?
Mayor Suarez: Well, I think you know that Miami is very accustomed to hosting large events. We have the most Super Bowls in history. We’re hosting the BCS Championship also in January. We have Ultra, which is 150,000 people in three days. We have Art Basel, which takes over the entire MSA of 3 million people. So, we’re very accustomed to dealing with large events. The G20 is a very exciting event. World Cup is an exciting event. You need to have, of course, tremendous security. The last thing we want to see, not just for planning or for the country, is any sort of lapses in security.
We did a very good job as a community with the Club World Cup that we hosted this summer, which was another global event. We had several games there, and it went flawlessly. And that’s what we hope, we always strive for perfection and flawlessness in terms of our security plan, in terms of our infrastructure plans. And so that’s what we’re hoping for.
Just the G20, a lot of people don’t realize, is just in media credentials is over 2,500 people. So that’s just 2,500 reporters or more, and their staff which comes with them. So, I fully expect all the hotels to be booked, all the restaurants to be. So this is something that I think, well, first of all, I have to deconflict Art Basel with G20. That was one of the things I had to do to help the president, the administration, to be able to make this happen.
This is something that gets glossed over a lot with these big events because, you know, only 65,000 people can see a World Cup game right, and there are seven games, so only a certain amount of people can see the games, only a certain amount people can actually attend the G20.
But what gets glossed over and I think is really important is that all our hotels are going to be full, all our restaurants are going to be full and so our restaurants employ hundreds of people. They have hundreds of covers. They turn over the restaurant two or three times a night. So this is going to impact every day regular people in Miami. And it’s going be a huge boost to them and to their earnings. And that to me is very significant. It’s not just about these events that are limited in their capacity. It’s about what they do for the city. Miami in 2026 is going to be the place to be.
As you as you leave Miami leadership, what are you most proud of?
Mayor Suarez: I think I’m most proud of the fact that it took a city that was bankrupt, literally in 2009 when I got there, and now we have the highest reserves in history that the best credit rating in history. We look at our metrics and they’re almost unbelievable in terms of how good they are.
And I think we’ve done something at the macro level that is the hardest thing to do, which is to change the perception of a city. I always say it’s like turning a cruise ship, you know?
And of course there are other big wins, like the stadium for Inter Miami, which is going to be finalized in February or March of next year. And a variety of things that are happening. So, I think for me, having been born here, it’s just a pride in knowing how far we’ve gone and I think being a catalyst of that, getting some recognition over that, leading the country to get the World Cup in 2026 as the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, having gone to Doha, having talked to Gianni and built a relationship, all these things, for me, they exceeded my expectation and what I thought I could do in the job. And what I thought the impact would be.