Trump signs order calling for Presidio Trust's elimination

Jason Green and Rick Hurd, The Mercury News on Feb 20, 2025

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SAN FRANCISCO – President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order calling for the swift elimination of the Presidio Trust, the federal agency that political rival Nancy Pelosi helped establish in 1996 to oversee The Presidio of San Francisco.

The 1,500-acre park is jointly managed by the trust and the National Park Service.

The Presidio Trust in a statement Thursday morning said “all of its services and business will continue to operate as normal, welcoming visitors and serving all who live and work here.”

The executive order also called for the abolishment of the Inter-American Foundation, the United States African Development Foundation and the United States Institute of Peace.

The heads of each “unnecessary governmental entity” will have 14 days to submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget “confirming compliance with this order and stating whether the governmental entity or any components or functions thereof, are statutorily required and to what extent,” according to the order.

In a statement to the Bay Area News Group, Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi said her office is “carefully reviewing the language of the President’s executive order and its purpose.”

“In 1996, the Presidio Trust Act was passed in a bipartisan way when Republicans held the majority in Congress and has retained bipartisan support ever since,” she said. “The Presidio Trust is statutory, and it has been protected from assaults over time by its statutory strength.”

In its statement, the Presidio Trust said the program was established “to reduce expenditures by the National Park Service and increase revenues to the Federal Government to the maximum extent possible.”

The Presidio Trust said the program has worked effectively enough that it “has not received regular annual appropriations from Congress since 2013, instead relying on the funds earned by leasing the historic buildings that the Trust has renovated.”

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, vowed to fight the president’s plans to close the federal agency.

“Trump is determined to tear down everything good in this country, and this is the latest example,” Wiener said.

“The Presidio Trust is a national treasure – a self-sustaining trust that’s created a flourishing and vibrant Presidio,” he continued. “But Trump can’t tolerate success if it’s not about him or enriching him. So he’s trying to kill it off. We’re not going to go quietly. When it comes to the destruction Trump is inflicting, we will have the last word.”

The Bay Area Council condemned President Trump’s order, with CEO Jim Wunderman in a statement calling it a “tragic mistake that undermines decades of hard work and investment to create one of the most spectacular and beautiful urban open spaces in the world providing incredible recreational and cultural benefits to millions of visitors.”

Wunderman testified before Congress during their process to create the Trust while working as then-San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan’s Deputy Chief of Staff. He reiterated that the Trust received bipartisan support and uses public and private money.

“The Presidio serves as a national model for how government and the private sector can work together to accomplish great things,” Wunderman said. “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.”

According to the Presidio Trust’s website, Congress required the federal agency to fund its own operations by rehabilitating and leasing buildings left by the Army. The site served as a military outpost for the Spanish Empire and the Mexican Republic before the U.S Army seized it at the start of the Mexican-American War in 1846. The Army re-opened it in 1848, and U.S. Generals William Tecumseh Sherman, George Henry Thomas and John J. Pershing all called it home.

In 1972, Congress made it a national park, establishing it as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area that would be created if the Army ever left the base. That happened in 1989. Left behind were many dilapidated buildings and systems that needed to be overhauled.

To pay for it, Pelosi spearheaded the 1996 bipartisan legislation establishing the Presidio Trust.

“We will present a report on our activities to the Office of Management of Budget, as required by the order, in two weeks,” the Presidio Trust said in its statement. “We are confident that our activities are statutorily-based.”