Feb 20, 2025 (KQED.org)
Fort Winfield Scott was an active army base within the Presidio of San Francisco from 1912-1994. San Francisco’s beloved Presidio is targeted in President Trump’s latest executive order, which seeks to all but eliminate agencies that it deems “unnecessary.” (Ryan Levi/KQED)
Updated 11:49 a.m. Thursday
A sweeping executive action that President Trump signed Wednesday night to all but eliminate certain federal agencies targets San Francisco’s beloved Presidio.
The “Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy” order calls for shrinking agencies that the administration deems “unnecessary” to “minimize government waste and abuse,” including the Presidio Trust.
The trust, which Congress formed in 1996 to manage and protect the historic 1,500-acre park that looks out on the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay, is one of four agencies that has been ordered to eliminate its non-statutory operations “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” and reduce its statutory function to the minimum required by law.
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“The Presidio Trust is statutory, and it has been protected from assaults over time by its statutory strength,” Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D–San Francisco) said in a statement on Wednesday night. “We will be carefully reviewing the language of the President’s executive order and its purpose.”
The order also targets the Inter-American Foundation, the United States African Development Foundation and the United States Institute of Peace.
Whether the order will face legal contest wasn’t immediately clear Thursday, but Californians have already mounted multiple fights against Trump in court since he took office.
San Francisco Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, who represents the park area, said that while it’s still unclear exactly what the order will do, he is working with the trust and local lawmakers to protect the Presidio.
“The only thing that this does is create completely unnecessary fear,” he told KQED. “I’ll be incredibly supportive of our city attorneys and of our federal officials in pushing back at this. We have to remember there are 3,000 San Francisco residents that live in the Presidio. These are my constituents; this is deeply, deeply personal to me and to my neighbors.”
The Bay Area Council, a public policy advocacy group, called on Trump to reconsider the order.
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“The shocking order to eviscerate the Presidio Trust is a tragic mistake that undermines decades of hard work and investment,” CEO Jim Wunderman said in a statement. “The Presidio has been nothing short of a phenomenal success, not just for San Francisco but everyone who visits and enjoys the park’s many wonders.”
A spokesperson for the Presidio Trust said it will submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget in two weeks, as required by the order, but is confident that its operations are statutorily based.
The trust “has not received regular annual appropriations from Congress since 2013,” when it stopped receiving money to aid the Presidio’s transition from a former Army base. Instead, it relies on funds earned by leasing historic buildings it has renovated, according to the statement.
“The Presidio is a one-of-a-kind national park site, and all of its services and business will continue to operate as normal, welcoming visitors and serving all who live and work here,” the trust’s statement reads.
The national landmark has been on Republican lawmakers’ radar as a place to recoup funds for weeks, first floated in a 50-page list of potential cost reductions to pay for Trump’s immigration crackdown and tax cuts in January. The list that circulated among GOP leaders called for the Presidio Trust to return $200 million secured by Pelosi in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to make infrastructure upgrades.
The list claimed that the way the transfer of the funds was requested “was not consistent with standard agency practices for selecting priority deferred maintenance projects,” but Presidio spokespeople have said the money is already in use. It’s unclear whether these funds will be affected by the order.
This is a developing story, and it will be updated.
