DeSantis is making his priorities crystal clear in South Florida.
He turned Reagan's 115th birthday into something bigger.
And Ron DeSantis just made one move that sent a message Cuba's communists won't forget.
Reagan statue goes up as Miami sends message to Castro's regime
DeSantis unveiled a bronze Reagan statue at Florida International University on Friday as part of his America 250 campaign rolling across Florida.
The 7.5-foot monument now stands outside FIU's Ronald W. Reagan Presidential House.
Cuban American artist Carlos Enrique Prado created the statue showing Reagan in a suit, hands near his waist, with the composed expression that defined his presidency.
DeSantis didn't pick this location by accident.
"So why do it in Miami?" DeSantis asked the crowd at Friday's ceremony. "Well, there was nobody at that time who was stronger against communism than Ronald Reagan."
Miami's Cuban American community remembers Reagan as the President who stood with them when the wounds from Castro's takeover were still fresh.
Reagan visited the heart of Little Havana in 1983 and ate lunch at La Esquina de Tejas restaurant where he ordered chicken with black beans and rice.
That gesture stuck with Cuban exiles for decades.
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"The wounds were still fresh from the Castro takeover of Cuba and all the destruction that they brought," DeSantis said. "Reagan was very strong against communism. He built up our military and stared down the Soviets. But he also had a way of showing just how absurd communism was."
FIU president announces task force for Cuba's transition
FIU President Jeanette Nuñez used the ceremony to announce something that will have Castro's regime nervous.
She's launching the Cuba Transition Task Force.
"This effort will bring together scholars — experts in governance, economics, medicine, public health, environment, architecture, infrastructure, technology — working towards freedom in Cuba and a democratic form of government," Nuñez said.
Nuñez is the first woman president at FIU and served as Florida's Lieutenant Governor until February 2025.
She's Cuban American and graduated from FIU twice.
"We know this won't be easy, but things that are worth fighting for never are," Nuñez added.
The timing wasn't coincidental.
FIU is also breaking ground on a new building called "CasaCuba" across the street from the presidential house.
The building will celebrate Cuban contributions to America while keeping an eye on the island's future.
Reagan spelled out the difference between freedom and communism during his 1983 Miami visit.
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He pointed out that 10 million people still lived in Cuba compared to about one million Cuban Americans with the same cultural heritage.
The Cubans in the United States with only one-tenth the number produced almost two times the wealth of those left behind.
"Don't let anyone fool you: What's happening in Cuba is not a failure of the Cuban people; it's a failure of Fidel Castro and of communism," Reagan said.
DeSantis is making Reagan's anti-communist legacy part of Florida's America 250 celebration.
The Governor already installed a George Washington statue at the state Capitol and Thomas Jefferson in Jefferson County.
Benjamin Franklin went to Franklin County.
James Monroe is headed to the Florida Keys.
Frederick Douglass will be honored in St. Augustine.
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"While others are tearing statues of our founding fathers down, Florida is putting them up," DeSantis said when unveiling Jefferson's statue last year.
The Reagan statue carries extra weight in Miami where older Cuban Americans still see communism as the system that destroyed their homeland.
DeSantis connected Reagan's fight against the Soviet Union to South Florida's ongoing opposition to Castro's regime.
"We wouldn't have seen the Berlin Wall fall and the Soviet Union expire when we did, were it not for President Reagan's leadership," DeSantis said.
The statue went up on Reagan's 115th birthday.
FIU's Cuba Transition Task Force will bring together experts across disciplines to plan for the day Castro's regime finally falls.
Reagan spent his presidency proving communism was bankrupt and immoral.
DeSantis is making sure a new generation remembers why that fight mattered.
Sources:
- Grace Bellinghausen, "Reagan statue unveiled at FIU as Florida expands its collection of America 250 monuments," CBS12, February 6, 2026.
- Jordan Kissane and Rubén Rosario, "At FIU's Reagan statue unveiling, DeSantis addresses president's anti-communist stance, Nuñez announces Cuba task force," WSVN, February 6, 2026.
- Garrett Shanley and David Goodhue, "DeSantis unveils gilded Reagan statue in Miami," Tampa Bay Times, February 6, 2026.
- WLRN Staff, "DeSantis unveils Ronald Reagan statue at FIU to mark 250th U.S. anniversary," WLRN, February 9, 2026.
- Ronald Reagan, "Remarks at a Cuban Independence Day Celebration in Miami, Florida," Reagan Library, May 20, 1983.
- Voice of America, "Miami's Cuban-Exiles Mourn Ronald Reagan," June 9, 2004.
