Could Miami mayor become US ambassador to Saudi Arabia? It's a 'definite maybe'

Could Miami Mayor Francis Suarez be the next U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia?

That possibility appears to be gaining momentum after Suarez joined President Donald Trump in the capital city of Riyadh this week as the president kicked off his multi-day Gulf tour. Footage from this week’s events shows Suarez chatting with Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

After 16 consecutive years in City Hall, first as a city commissioner and then as mayor, Suarez is slated to be termed out of office at the end of the year. In a Fox Business interview with “The Bottom Line” on Wednesday, one of the hosts asked Suarez directly if he was “in talks” to become the Saudi ambassador.

Suarez responded that he was “focused on the next 182 days of my mayoralty.” But when pressed, the mayor cracked a smile, saying only, “I have full faith and confidence in the president’s decision making.”

In a statement to the Miami Herald, Suarez’s office said Thursday that the mayor is “focused on finishing his term strong and building on Miami’s momentum, including record-low unemployment, rising wages, lowest homeless rate in 11 years and a growing global profile.”

“While he’s proud to have fostered international partnerships, including with Saudi Arabia, any future decisions rest with President Trump,” the statement continued. “Mayor Suarez has full confidence the President will make the best decision for the country.”

During the Fox segment, Suarez was effusive in his praise for Trump, telling the hosts that the president’s Middle East tour has been “a master class on how to make deals, on how to deal with foreign leaders.”

Suarez went on to tout his own ability as mayor to “build partnerships with countries like Saudi Arabia,” including bringing a Saudi regime-backed trade summit called FII Priority to Miami Beach for the first time in 2023, as well as bringing a Saudi investment office to Miami.

“I think there’s much more work to be done between Miami and Saudi Arabia,” Suarez said.

One of the hosts interjected, saying that all sounded like a “good, strong pitch to become the ambassador.”

“That sounds like the answer you give if a president was asking you, ‘Why should we give this to you?’ We’re going to take that as a definite maybe,” the host added.

Suarez has forged ties to Saudi Arabia in recent years, having traveled there multiple times as part of his work for the international litigation firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, where Suarez is of counsel. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, called the Public Investment Fund, is a Quinn Emanuel client.

Both Suarez and Quinn Emanuel have maintained that there is a firewall separating his work for the firm from his mayoral duties and that Suarez is not an attorney for the sovereign wealth fund.

The fund launched the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute, which was established by royal decree to advance Saudi Arabia’s mission “to bring together global leaders and innovators to invest in the most promising solutions.” The international conference series that Suarez helped bring to South Florida is part of the FII Institute.

That conference series was part of a congressional probe into how Saudi Arabia has bought its way into popular U.S. institutions to reshape the public narrative in America and deflect attention from the country’s human rights abuses. The investigation was led by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, housed within the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. It was spawned by the success of the upstart LIV Golf tour, which the committee called a Saudi-funded “takeover” of the PGA Tour.

After nearly two years, the investigation concluded in April, finding that “foreign influence efforts by Saudi Arabia and similar malign actors are growing in scope, sophistication, and reach.”

During the FII conference in 2023, which took place in Miami Beach, Suarez spoke onstage alongside Yasir Al-Rumayyan, known as the right-hand man to the Saudi crown prince. Suarez described himself as being in a “friendly, loving competition” with the crown prince over whether Riyadh or Miami would become the “central aggregator and deployer of capital in the world.”

National security and foreign policy experts have cautioned that the state-sponsored conferences are part of a well-funded effort by the Saudi government to rehab its image on the global stage following years of human rights abuses, and especially after a 2021 U.S. intelligence report tying Mohammed bin Salman to the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi unleashed an international boycott movement.

According to expert witnesses interviewed during a September 2023 hearing of the congressional committee, Saudi Arabia has invested billions in global initiatives aimed at winning over influencers and celebrities, who — wittingly or not — then become part of the regime’s campaign to “convince international investors to invest in the country despite pervasive human rights violations,” as one witness put it.

Suarez previously credited two people with introducing him to Saudi Arabia. One is his boss, John Quinn, the founder of Quinn Emanuel. The other is Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser during his first term in the White House.

Kushner, who has been listed as a featured speaker for the Future Investment Initiative conference, has his own ties to the Saudis. In 2022, Saudia Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund invested $2 billion in Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners.

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