Fans of San Francisco’s largest park were baffled Wednesday when President Donald Trump ordered drastic cuts to the Presidio Trust, which has long drawn praise for its financial independence from the federal government.
Major questions remain: Can Trump destroy one of San Francisco’s most beloved parks? Or is this simply him taking a slug at Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, his longtime foe and the Presidio Trust’s founder?
Trump’s executive order, “Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” directs the Presidio Trust — as well as other agencies it describes as “unnecessary” — to submit a report describing its operations, which were outlined in a 1996 act of Congress. The act allowed the trust to lease and rehabilitate the park’s expansive portfolio of buildings and homes, among other activities.
The trust has two weeks to submit the report. Federal funding could be withheld for agencies that are not in compliance, the order states.
What happens after that remains murky.
Bridget Dooling, an administrative law expert at Ohio State University, said the Trump administration appears to be trying to determine if the Presidio Trust is spending outside of its authority as established by Congress.
The financial independence of the trust, which collects most of its funds from commercial and residential property leases, raises questions about the administration’s intent, she said.
The trust projects $184 million in revenue and $139 million in costs for fiscal 2025, for a surplus of around $45 million.
“That rationale doesn’t make sense,” Dooling said of Trump’s demand for an accounting from the trust. “You see this disconnect between the rhetoric of waste, fraud, and abuse to justify their actions.”
‘We expected to be a target’
Trump’s executive order is part of an effort led by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, which seeks to investigate purported fraud, waste, and abuse from federal coffers.
While Trump’s supporters say DOGE will balance the federal government’s enormous budget, critics assert that its actions have been haphazard, ideologically driven, and illegal.
Some reacted to news of the executive order with suggestions that the president convert the Presidio into a “Freedom City” focused on manufacturing and innovation — an idea he floated as a candidate in 2023.
Those familiar with the Presidio Trust’s operations say they don’t know what the federal government would identify as wasteful.
“It’ll be really interesting if the administration can come up with stuff that they think [the trust] is stepping out of line,” said Deborah A. Sivas, a professor of environmental law at Stanford. “It’ll be about DEI or something,” she said, referring to the administration’s goal of rooting out diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the government and the private sector.
Sivas said the language of the executive order suggests that the administration may target the Presidio Trust for termination. The president doesn’t have the authority to dissolve a federal agency established by Congress, but that may become a battle in the courts, she said.
The Presidio Trust was established after the U.S. Department of Defense decommissioned the area as a military base in the 1980s. It hasn’t received yearly appropriations from the federal government since 2013. In 2023, Pelosi announced that the park would receive a $200 million infusion of federal funds for maintenance.
Some observers say the executive order was Trump’s way of seeking vengeance on Pelosi, who was one of the president’s main enemies during his first administration.
“I suspect it is because it is in Nancy Pelosi’s [district],” said a person familiar with the Presidio Trust’s operations. “We expected to be a target of political retribution. That’s my guess.”
At a press conference Thursday, Pelosi said federal funds for the Presidio were committed but it’s not clear if the law allows for funds to be clawed back by the federal government.
“It really reached its goal in 2013, that it would be self-sufficient and no longer an expense to American taxpayers,” she said.