Gridlock and fury: Trump's Saudi visit snarls Miami music festival

Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman holds U.S. President Donald Trump's hand during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 18, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

Miami New Times reports that an insensitive president is coming to town at the worst of times, and Magic City drivers will be furious.

“If you think traffic is bad enough during Miami Music Week and Ultra Music Festival, just wait: it is going to get a lot worse,” wrote Miami New Times reporter Naomi Feinstein.

The first day of Ultra is kicking off on Friday at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami and President Donald Trump has picked that time to deliver a big closing finale at the Faena Hotel and Forum for his Saudi friends and their Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute Priority Summit.

“Both events will cause major traffic impacts and road closures for drivers in and around Miami Beach and downtown Miami,” reports Feinstein, with The Miami Beach Police Department predicting Friday night drivers could start feeling traffic impacts as early as 9 a.m. with road closures between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Miami is already known for its packed Friday nights streets and its insane club scene. And high-energy acts make a point to touch down in the city’s raging venues. Add to that a luxurious Saudi-backed investment summit haunted by a seemingly tone-deaf president with strong ties to the Saudi government, and you’ve got road closures and traffic restrictions over numerous city blocks.

Only certain vehicles will be allowed in other additional streets.

The Times reports former Miami Mayor and Saudi Arabia frequent flyer Francis Suarez will also speak at the Saudi Arabia conference as that nation’s royal family labors to “whitewash its record of human rights abuses.”

Trump will be helping in that endeavor, which is not a surprise after former CIA counter-terrorism expert Marc Polymeropoulos accused Trump of caving on U.S. Demands that the Saudi government address its human rights violations before granting Saudi Arabia access to lethal U.S. weaponry.

“We're giving Saudi all of these kinds of things and this boon without getting anything in return, which everybody really wants, which is normalization,” Polymeropoulos said, while pointing out that Trump’s financial involvement with the nation’s leaders should be throwing up warnings to anybody concerned with corruption.

“The Trump brand is going to go on golf courses and hotels throughout the kingdom,” Polymeropoulos added. “Trump's kids are involved with business interests, and of course, Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner, has been very close to MBS [Mohammed bin Salman] for years.”

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