Goodbye, Francis Suarez: Miami’s most frequent flyer mayor takes off for good

Francis Suarez is finally gone.
After 16 years in city government — eight as a commissioner and eight as mayor — Miami’s self-appointed global brand ambassador, crypto whisperer and aspiring Silicon Valley mascot packed his bags one last time and left City Hall. On Thursday, he handed over the keys (hopefully not honorary ones) to former Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, Miami’s first woman mayor and the first Democrat to hold the job in nearly three decades.
Suarez leaves behind two very different legacies — depending on who’s telling the story.
In his farewell op-ed in The Miami Herald, Suarez — the Miami-born son of the city’s first Cuban-born mayor — paints himself as the architect of “Miami for everyone,” a visionary who lowered taxes, raised wages, cut unemployment, tamed homelessness, modernized city government, expanded opportunity, fixed housing, boosted education, welcomed the world and somehow still made it home for dinner.
It’s a beautiful story. Polished. Aspirational. Almost influencer-ready.
It just leaves out a few things.
Like the part where being mayor increasingly seemed like a side hustle to Suarez’s real passion: being anywhere else.
Few Miami mayors have logged as many frequent flyer miles as Suarez. Qatar. Japan. South Korea. Saudi Arabia. The Texas border. Washington. A celebrity wedding in Egypt. New York. California. Campaign stops for a presidential run so short and uneventful, most voters never knew it happened.
Read related: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is all over the place — except leading the city
And wherever Suarez went, city taxpayers followed — footing the bill for “dignitary protection,” luxury hotels and police travel while residents wondered why their mayor kept governing from 35,000 feet.
New Times lovingly dubbed him “The Wanderer.” Miami residents just wondered who was actually minding the city.
Suarez stood by and did nothing as the commissioner carved up their fiefdoms during the 2022 redistricting madness. He did nada as the commission humiliated and fired the police chief that he brought from Texas. He did absolutely nothing while former Commissioner Joe Carollo weaponized the city government against Little Havana property owners for political retaliation, costing the city millions in legal fees and settlements. And he did nothing as former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla raided the Omni CRA and got city salaries for his personal campaign operatives who were no-show employees.
And, lest we forget, this is the guy who is single-handedly responsible for handing over the last public golf course in Miami, Melreese, to developers to build a mega retail/office complex disguised as a soccer stadium.
He became a national darling when he became Miami’s patient zero during the COVID pandemic, providing daily updates on national news about his symptoms and how he felt from his homebound quarantine. You could tell he liked being he national COVID commentator.
But Suarez will forever be remembered as the man who tried to turn Miami into the Crypto Capital of the World — and briefly convinced tech bros that a meme coin could replace city taxes.
MiamiCoin, we were told, would generate tens of millions, fund public services, fight homelessness, and maybe cure potholes while it was at it. Businesses were encouraged to accept it. Residents were promised Bitcoin dividends. He posed with a shiny robot bull — that sort of symbolizes his entire term in office — to show Miami was tech central.
By 2023, the only exchange supporting MiamiCoin pulled the plug. The coin became worthless. And Miami was left with a lesson it didn’t ask for: cities should not be run like speculative startups.
Read related: Miami Bull is exactly what absentee Mayor Francis Suarez has been selling
Then there was the speculative presidential campaign. Remember that? No? That’s okay — hardly anyone does.
Suarez entered the 2024 GOP primary, polled at 0.2%, failed to qualify for the debate he insisted he’d be on, and dropped out after two weeks. It was one of the shortest non-fringe presidential campaigns in modern American history. Highlights included offering $20 Visa gift cards to donors and publicly asking, on conservative radio, “What’s a Uyghur?” — later referring to them as “Weebles.”
Global leadership, indeed.
Suarez also managed to court controversy closer to home.
There was the Formula 1 ethics complaint after he attended pricy VIP events — with his campaign fundraiser Brian Goldmeier — courtesy of billionaire Ken Griffin while Citadel was exploring a move to Miami. The complaint was dismissed — he reimbursed the tickets — but the optics lingered.
There were the Saudi appearances, including a front-row seat near Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at an esports event in Riyadh — spotted not by city disclosure, but by livestream — just a day after Suarez posted an Instagram story suggesting he was enjoying “Miami afternoons.”
But that’s not the worst part, him being a liar. He’s also an apologist to murderers and thugs.
Suarez organized and promoted the 2023 Future Investment Initiative Priority Summit, a Miami Beach event sponsored by the government of Saudi Arabia, which was under investigation by the US. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs for using American assets to boost efforts to clean up the regime’s image. This is the same government that stands accused of arbitrary arrests, torture and political assassinations, like the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was ambushed and strangled by a 15-member squad of Saudi operatives. His body was dismembered and disposed of in some way that was never publicly revealed. People suspect it was in suitcases.
And still, he hoped to get Trump’s appointment to be ambassador there. He even gave him a key to the city last month. Before gave the real ones to Higgins.
Read related: What corruption probe? Mayor Francis Suarez enjoys Egypt wedding, Miami F1
Perhaps the most striking contrast comes not from policy, but from personal finance.
Suarez entered office with a modest net worth of about $400,000. He leaves with more than $5 million. This is fueled, in part, by his side gigs, including the $10,000 a month he was getting as a “consultant” for developer Rishi Kapoor while Kapoor secured permits for his projects. This “commitment as a public official” became part of the FBI investigation into Kapoor’s business.
That doesn’t make Baby X corrupt. But it does raise an eyebrow — especially for a mayor who insisted his focus was always local, always neighborhood-based, always for everyone.
He’s not only gotten richer, Suarez has gotten buffer, posting work-out videos often. In fact, he loves the TV so much he might do a fitness show for cable next.
There are a lot of possibilities — and speculations. Will he run for higher office? Congress? Governor? Will he go to work for some huge development firm? Or Griffith? Whatever he does next is worth watching. But at least he won’t do it on the taxpayer dime.
Read related: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez gave Trump a key to city; gave us the finger
Now he can hang out with Javier Milei, who represses freedom of press and clamps down on protests and dissent in Argentina, or Jeff Bezos, who also spoke at his America Business Forum last month, where the postalita mayor gave Donald Trump a key to the city. Or Richard Branson on his island like he did on Election Day.
Francis Suarez wanted to make Miami global. And in many ways, he did — as a brand, a buzzword, a backdrop for conferences, crypto schemes, and international photo ops.
But while Miami went global, many residents stayed stuck: priced out of housing, stuck in traffic, watching rents soar and wages chase inflation.
Suarez leaves behind a city more famous than ever — and more divided about who that fame actually served.
Now Miami turns the page.
No more MiamiCoin promises. No more presidential auditions. No more mayors spotted abroad by accident.
Just the hard work of governing a city — on the ground, at home, and in full view of the people who live here.
Goodbye, Francis. And good riddance.
Safe travels.

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