Weeks after President Donald Trump targeted San Francisco’s largest park with the possibility of “dramatically” downsizing its operations, the Presidio Trust responded with a 14-page report that asserts “broad” legal powers that allow it to offer an “extraordinary national park site at a minimal cost” to taxpayers.
In a report required by the Feb. 19 executive order titled “Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” the trust, which oversees the caretaking of the park, explained that its finances are largely independent of the federal government and that the site has historical significance for the U.S. military.
Notably, the report quotes four Presidio Trust board members whom Trump appointed during his first term, including Lynne Benioff, wife of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and Marie Hurabiell.
The February executive order both enraged and puzzled San Francisco officials, who argued that the Presidio has long been a model of financial independence. The park has not received federal appropriations since 2013, while leases from residential and commercial properties collected by the trust produce tens of millions of dollars in revenue per year.
“Put simply, donors trust the Trust,” Benioff says in the report. “Its reputation as a well-run organization means people are willing to put their own dollars into projects to make the park even more successful.”
The report appears to try to speak in language familiar to the president, who has long touted himself as a successful businessman, golf club owner, and hotelier.
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“Run like a business, with a CEO and a Chief Business Officer, and overseen by a board appointed by the President of the United States, the Presidio Trust operates profitable businesses — commercial leasing, residential leasing, hotels, and a golf course — in order to fund park operations,” the report states.
Some suspect Trump’s move was tied to his long-standing feud with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, one of the chief founders of the Presidio Trust. Pelosi has said she is reviewing the president’s order. Mayor Daniel Lurie has called the park a “crown jewel” of San Francisco and has said his office is ready to “support Speaker Pelosi and our federal partners” to protect the Presidio.
What will happen to the presidential appointees who make up the Presidio Trust board is under close watch. Trump has the power to pick six of the seven-person board’s seats.
The report was sent to the federal government’s Office of Management and Budget, led by Russell Vought, a chief author of the conservative policy platform Project 2025 who now helps Trump craft a budget and align spending with his priorities.
Vought has been at the forefront of a larger effort to reduce the size of the administrative state under Trump, whose supporters have asserted that the federal bureaucracy runs inefficiently, is rife with corruption, or contains factions opposed to the president’s directives. Other agencies targeted in the Feb. 19 order include the Inter-American Foundation, the United States African Development Foundation, and the United States Institute of Peace.
The Presidio Trust declined to provide additional comment. The Office of Management and Budget did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wednesday’s report to the federal government outlines the Presidio’s military history, including its transformation from a U.S. Army post to a 1,500-acre park with 9.5 million visitors annually.
On Tuesday, the Gazetteer SF reported on the Presidio’s response to the president’s calls to abolish diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, including removing the term “gender-inclusive” from its website and pronouns for trust employees’ email signatures.
The 1996 Presidio Trust Act allows the federal agency to lease and rehabilitate the park’s extensive set of buildings, home to thousands of residents and more than 300 businesses.
Business owners at the park shared their concerns with The Standard in the wake of the executive order. They said some operations, including two locations of Equator Coffee, could be adversely affected by the order.
In a news release after the executive order, the trust said it had achieved a “record” $182 million in operating revenue in 2024 and invested all of its $58 million in net operating income into the park.