“Meet to parley if you will, but do not peaceably surrender... Think how much better it is to have a world united than a world divided. It is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war.”
—Winston Churchill (Former UK Prime Minister): Churchill actually popularized the political use of the word "summit" in 1950. He firmly believed that top-level meetings were superior to traditional bureaucracy.
The United States turns 250 years-old today, July 4, 2026, and five months later it will host the twenty-first G20 leaders' summit at Trump National Doral outside Miami on December 14 and 15. It is the first American G20 since Pittsburgh in 2009, and the last stop of a U.S. presidency of the group that began on December 1, 2025. The convergence is by design: a semiquincentennial year, a summit branded to it, and a Miami stage ready to receive the world's convening class in style.
This is a homecoming issue for LIKE magazine. Summit Season has long tracked the rooms where the world's decisions get made — and where its principals actually stay, dine, close a deal and unwind after the plenary breaks. For our fourth volume we are on home soil. Miami in December is the destination; the G20 is the reason.
The Miami guest list is a full and lively one. The standing G20 roster gathers in force at Trump National Doral Miami, with the African Union and the European Union at the table as permanent supranational members and Poland joining as an invited guest of the American host. A full ledger of who is in the room and who is not follows below — heads of state, delegation leaders, multilateral chairs, and the two seats standing empty this cycle. The short version: a Miami table stacked with heads of state, central bank governors and the leadership of every institution the G20 was built to steer.
And the United Kingdom arrives at a genuinely historic moment. Sir Keir Starmer announced his resignation as Labour leader on June 22, 2026; Andy Burnham, the popular mayor of Greater Manchester, has emerged as the designated successor, endorsed by former Health Secretary Wes Streeting and expected to take the keys to Downing Street before the Miami summit. His Majesty King Charles III stands as the United Kingdom's head of state; the working delegation at Doral is expected to be led by potential Prime Minister Andy Burnham himself or, if the succession slips past mid-December, by current Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. Either way, Miami is the first American stage of a new British government — a piece of transatlantic choreography that history will note.
In the Room · Not in the Room
Who is on the Doral roster in December, and who is not, is itself a piece of the 2026 story. LIKE magazine keeps the record.
In the room. The United States hosts as G20 chair, with President Donald J. Trump presiding. From the standing G20 national roster: China (President Xi Jinping), the United Kingdom (His Majesty King Charles III as head of state, with a working delegation led by the incoming government in London), France (President Emmanuel Macron), Germany (President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as head of state, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz leading the delegation), Italy (President Sergio Mattarella as head of state, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni leading the delegation), Japan (His Majesty Emperor Naruhito as head of state, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi — the country's first woman in the office — leading the delegation), Canada (Governor-General Louise Arbour, sworn in June 8, 2026 as the country's 31st viceregal representative, with Prime Minister Mark Carney leading the delegation), India (President Droupadi Murmu as head of state, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the delegation), Brazil (President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva), Argentina (President Javier Milei), Saudi Arabia (King Salman bin Abdulaziz as head of state, with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman leading the delegation), Türkiye (President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan), Indonesia (President Prabowo Subianto), Australia (Governor-General Sam Mostyn representing the sovereign, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leading the delegation), Mexico (President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo) and the Republic of Korea (President Lee Jae Myung), Poland's President Karol Nawrocki joins as an invited guest of the U.S. presidency after his September 2025 White House meeting with President Trump.
Supranational · AU. The African Union sits as a permanent G20 member since New Delhi 2023. In 2026 the chair rotates from Angola's João Lourenço to Burundi's President Évariste Ndayishimiye, who was formally elected at the 39th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly in Addis Ababa; Ndayishimiye leads the AU delegation at Doral, with Chairperson of the AU Commission Mahmoud Ali Youssouf in support.
Supranational · EU. European Union is represented by Council President António Costa as head of the institution, with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the room.
Not in the room. The South African Government, which handed the G20 gavel to Washington in December 2025, is sitting Miami out after a diplomatic disagreement between the two capitals. Russia is represented not by President Vladimir Putin but by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who leads the Russian delegation in Miami. A handful of past invited guests from the Riyadh and Rio cycles — the Netherlands, Norway, the United Arab Emirates — are absent from the American guest list this year; the U.S. presidency has kept the invited-nation circle deliberately small.
The multilateral chairs. Kristalina Georgieva, (International Monetary Fund), Ajay Banga (World Bank Group), António Guterres (United Nations), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, (World Trade Organization), Mathias Cormann (OECD), Andrew Bailey (Financial Stability Board), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, (World Health Organization, Gilbert F. Houngbo, (International Labour Organization) and, in his first G20 as chair, Giles Thomson (Financial Action Task Force) round out the working table. This is the bench the G20 was built to steer, and every seat is filled.
Summit Dates and Logistics
The summit convenes at The Trump National Doral, 4400 NW 87th Avenue, on December 14 and 15, 2026 — a two-day leaders' plenary flanked by sherpa meetings and bilateral windows on the 13th and the 16th. Doral sits nine miles west of Miami International Airport and roughly twenty from South Beach. The U.S. Secret Service has designated the resort a National Special Security Event, and the surrounding city has been quietly preparing for months: motorcade routes rehearsed, hospitality staff briefed, port and helipad windows blocked out for arriving delegations. Miami has hosted its share of high-wattage moments before, but a G20 in a semiquincentennial year is a first, and the city is treating it as such.
The Room at Doral
Trump National Doral Miami sits on 800 subtropical acres in northwest Miami Dade — four championship golf courses (The Blue Monster, the Golden Palm, the Silver Fox and the Red Tiger), a 48,000-square-foot spa, a resort core of low white lodges around a central palm-lined avenue, and a conference footprint that has quietly become one of the largest in the American South. The plenary itself will convene in the ballroom complex adjacent to the main clubhouse, with the Blue Monster's 18th fairway framing the leaders' arrival photo.
Bilateral rooms are staged in the low-rise lodges nearer the spa, chosen for their privacy and their easy motorcade access to the ballroom. Trump National Doral has hosted PGA Tour events, Cadillac Championships and countless corporate summits — a G20 is the natural next chapter, and the property is ready.
The Multilateral Circle
A G20 is never only the heads of state. The chairs along the wall belong to the institutions the group was built to steer, and the Miami edition brings a full multilateral bench.
Kristalina Georgieva returns as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, in her second term through 2029. Ajay Banga leads the World Bank Group, in the seat he has held since June 2023. António Guterres attends as UN Secretary-General, in the closing month of a second term that ends December 31, 2026 — a valedictory Miami appearance for a Secretary-General who has watched the G20 through most of a decade. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala leads the World Trade Organization, the first woman and first African to hold the post. Mathias Cormann represents the OECD, renewed by the OECD Council in July 2025 to a second term running through 2031. Andrew Bailey chairs the Financial Stability Board while also serving as Governor of the Bank of England. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends as Director-General of the World Health Organization, and Gilbert F. Houngbo as Director-General of the International Labour Organization.
And, in a first for the Miami table, the Financial Action Task Force is represented by a new President: Giles Thomson of the United Kingdom, whose two-year term began on July 1, 2026 and runs through June 30, 2028, with India's Vivek Aggarwal serving as Vice-President. Miami is Thomson's first G20 in the chair — a British presidency of FATF in an American G20 year, which is itself a nice piece of Anglo-American symmetry as the republic turns 250.
The British Question
The most watched storyline in the Miami build-up has been the British one. When Sir Keir Starmer announced his resignation on June 22, Downing Street moved quickly. Within twenty-four hours former Health Secretary Wes Streeting had publicly endorsed Andy Burnham, and Burnham has since begun the transition in earnest. On July 3, The Guardian reported that Starmer had warned his successor that the office demands more time on diplomacy than any incoming premier expects — advice a first G20 tends to make vivid.
For the first time in the group's history, a sitting British government is expected to change hands within the window of an American-hosted leaders' summit. At the 250-year mark of the American republic's founding, Britain sends a new premier onto the American stage in his opening week — an elegant echo of a longer story between the two capitals, and one Miami will host with the warmth the occasion deserves.
Where the Elite Meet™ (Miami)
Where the Elite Meet™ is LIKE's standing city franchise — a working guide to the rooms, restaurants, courses and islands the world's convening class will actually book. Every Summit Season issue turns the franchise on a new city; this volume is (MIAMI), for the December 2026 G20 at Trump National Doral.
The Miami guide follows: eight hotels for the delegations, nine restaurants for the working meals, four rooms for the after-party, three courses for the morning after, and one island for the delegations that would rather not be seen at all. The list is assembled from the 2026 Michelin Guide, the 2026 Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice Best of the Best US Hotels, Forbes, JustLuxe and the city's most careful nightlife reviewers.
Stay
Faena Hotel Miami Beach, at 3201 Collins Avenue in Mid-Beach, is Miami's headline stay of the moment. Damien Hirst's gilded mammoth guards the courtyard, Alan Faena's cabaret theater sits next door, and the 2026 Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice ranks it a Best of the Best US hotel and the number three property in Florida. The rooms lean red-velvet-and-brass, the beach service is the most attentive on the island, and the address is short-list on any advance team's list.
The Setai, at 2001 Collins Avenue, is the grown-ups' South Beach hotel — three cascading pools, an Asian-inflected all-day dining program, and the quietest tower on the ocean. Delegations that want distance from the boulevard book here.
The Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club, 9101 Collins Avenue in Surfside, wraps the historic 1930 Surf Club in three Richard Meier towers. Thomas Keller's Surf Club Restaurant is on property alongside the Sersale family's Le Sirenuse Miami, the beach service is uncompromising, and the layout offers the quiet ingress and egress a G20 principal's security detail prefers.
The Mandarin Oriental Miami, at 500 Brickell Key Drive, is a private-island address in the middle of the city — skyline and bay views from every room, and geographically the closest five-star to the Brickell finance sherpas.
Acqualina Resort and Residences on the Beach, 17875 Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles, is Tripadvisor's number five hotel in Florida and a Forbes Five-Star fixture — three oceanfront pools, a Roman-inspired spa and butler service by default.
The Ritz Carlton Key Biscayne, at 455 Grand Bay Drive, is Tripadvisor’s number nine in Florida for 2026 — a barrier-island resort that trades South Beach velocity for palm-shaded quiet, ten minutes from Brickell over the Rickenbacker Causeway.
1 Hotel South Beach, 2341 Collins Avenue, is number ten in Florida on the 2026 Tripadvisor rankings — a reclaimed-wood, living-wall statement of sustainable luxury with the largest hotel gym in Miami Beach and four pools.
And the Four Seasons Hotel Miami Florida, 1435 Brickell Avenue, is the polished Brickell tower — Edge Steak and Bar, a two-acre pool deck, and the shortest reliable ride to Doral for anyone working the finance track of the summit.
Eat
The 2026 Michelin Guide's Florida edition recognizes eighteen Miami restaurants, a bench Forbes described in its June round-up as among the deepest in the Americas. The delegation concierges have their shortlist.
L'atelier De Joël Robuchon in the Design District, is the city's only two-Michelin-star restaurant — the counter room and the salon side each pull from the same Robuchon repertoire, and it is the address for a serious closing dinner.
Cote Miami is also in the Design District, is a Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse that pairs prime cuts with an all-Champagne-and-Burgundy list — a favorite of the New York finance set now firmly at home in Miami.
Boia De in Buena Vista, is the small, funny, ambitious Italian that has held its Michelin star four years running — a nine-table room where a G20 sherpa might actually decompress.
Stubborn Seed, on South Beach, is Jeremy Ford's Michelin-starred tasting-menu room, a nightly performance of American fine dining that reads well to European and Asian palates alike.
Azabu Miami Beach, the sushi counter with the hidden speakeasy behind it, keeps its Michelin star for a reason — the omakase is disciplined and the room is quiet.
Los Félix, in Coconut Grove, is the Michelin-starred Mexican that turned heirloom masa into a Miami institution — the tasting menu is short, the mezcal list is long, and the room feels warm.
Mother Wolf, in Wynwood, is Evan Funke's Roman trattoria at scale — the pastas are hand-cut in the open kitchen, and it is the room where a bilateral naturally becomes a dinner.
Le Jardinier Miami, in the Design District, holds its Michelin star for a vegetable-forward French menu under Alain Verzeroli — a graceful choice for a working lunch.
And EntreNos, in Little River, is the eight-seat counter that quietly became one of the most talked-about tickets in America — a slow, four-hour menu from a former Michelin two-star kitchen, for the delegation that wants to disappear for an evening.
Play
Miami's nightlife has always been part of the diplomacy — the room after the room. A few names sit at the top.
LIV at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, 4441 Collins Avenue, is the city's headline club — the room that turned Miami Beach into a global nightlife capital. Reserve a table and expect a long, cinematic evening.
E11EVEN Miami, 29 NE 11th Street in downtown, is the twenty-four-hour ultraclub that never closes — a rare piece of civic infrastructure at 4 a.m. when the plenary is finally behind you.
Club Space, on NE 11th Street, is the after-hours institution the international DJs still fly in for —the sunrise on the Terrace is a Miami rite of passage.
Floyd Miami, in the same downtown corridor, is the intimate room for a smaller party — quieter, more musical, and a favorite of anyone who takes the DJ seriously.
Golf
The Blue Monster at Trump National Doral Miami is the course of record for the American G20 — a Dick Wilson design refreshed by Gil Hanse and by Donald Trump himself, and the site of the 2026 Cadillac Championship in May, where Cameron Young led wire-to-wire on rounds of 64-68-69-68 to win by six shots at 19-under. The par-72, 7,590-yard layout is unforgiving off the tee and generous on the greens; delegations with time before their departure flights should tee it up.
The Biltmore Golf Course in Coral Gables — the Donald Ross original from 1925, restored under the Biltmore Hotel's care — is Miami's most historic round, and a short drive from Doral for anyone wanting a second look at the city's older grandeur.
Crandon Golf at Key Biscayne, on the barrier island, is the public course that plays like a private one — ocean views on nine of eighteen holes and a mangrove ecology no other American municipal can match.
The Island
Fisher Island, three minutes across Government Cut from South Beach by the residents' ferry, is the private zip code that quietly houses many of the summit's most careful visitors. The Residences at Six Fisher Island, the new Kobi Karp tower, lists from approximately $15 million with available units well above $17 million; the club amenities, from the tennis center to the marina, are the reason principals return year after year. For a G20 week, Fisher Island is Miami's discreet backstage — a short boat ride from the city, and a world away when the day is finally done.
Closing
The 2026 Miami G20 will be brief on paper — two days, one resort, a signed communiqué if the sherpas do their work. But it lands in a year the country has been building toward for a generation, and in a city that has spent the last decade quietly becoming the American room where the rest of the world wants to meet. Summit Season, Volume IV, is our record of it: the leaders, the institutions, the venues, and the American 250-year mark that gave the whole thing its date on the calendar.
See you at Doral.
(Michael de la Force, LIKE Magazine, 7.4.26)