Presidio Trust Counters Trump’s Attempted Takedown

Four former board members of the Presidio Trust, each appointed by President Donald Trump, swung back to defend the agency overseeing the 1,500-acre national park in San Francisco.

The Trust fired off a report to Washington this week stressing its reliance on Presidio profits and private donations, not taxpayer money, after an executive order by Trump to gut the agency, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The federal Trust, charged with running and protecting the historic park at the base of the Golden Gate bridge, was deemed “unnecessary” along with three federal agencies.

Presidio Trust is self-sustaining, and has not received annual appropriations from Congress since 2013, according to the Trust’s report sent to the Office of Management and Budget.

Presidio Trust was required by Trump’s order to send a response to OMB, led by Russell Vought, architect of Project 2025, by March 5. Trump’s order said its goal was to “minimize government waste and abuse.”

Presidio Trust, however, achieved record earned operating revenue of $182 million last year, while reinvesting $58 million in net operating income into the park.

Since it became financially independent a dozen years ago, the Trust announced it has generated $350 million in net income and more than $1.1 billion in value for the national park.

Presidio Trust funds the federal land through “leasing and other profitable businesses,” according to the report, via rent collections from 300 businesses and more than 3,100 residents in the park’s former military buildings, rather than reliance on “taxpayer dollars.”

It also gets revenue from two hotels and the historic golf course to pay for operations including electricity, sewage, drinking water and telecommunications for the park, which the report compared to running a “small city.”

Presidio Trust also received more than $750 million in private donations.

“Put simply, donors trust the Trust,” Lynne Benioff, a former chair of the Presidio Trust Board appointed by Trump and wife of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, said in a statement 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 Presidio was awarded $200 million from the federal government in 2023 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in 2022.

This year, House Republicans decided to target the agency and try to claw back the funding intended to address deferred maintenance projects and ramp up the park’s climate resilience.

— Dana Bartholomew