President Donald Trump issued an executive order this week seeking to eliminate certain federal agencies, including the Presidio Trust that manages the Presidio of San Francisco.
The order, which is called “Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” aims to shrink the federal government through dramatically reducing the operations of certain federal agencies Trump deems “unnecessary,” according to the order.
The Presidio Trust was formed in 1996 by Congress to preserve and sustain the Presidio as a national park after the U.S. Army left the former military post. The trust stewards the park in partnership with the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.
The trust is named alongside other agencies including the Inter-American Foundation and the United States African Development Foundation, organizations that invest in grassroots and community-led development abroad. The United States Institute of Peace, which aims to resolve armed conflicts around the world, is also listed.
The goal of Wednesday’s order is to eliminate “to the maximum extent” any non-statutory components of the Presidio Trust and the other named agencies. Trump is effectively attempting to reduce the trust to its most basic functions as required by statute.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, who helped establish the new trust in Congress, said in a statement that the trust operates closely under statute.
“The Presidio Trust is statutory and it has been protected from assaults over time by its statutory strength,” she wrote. “We will be carefully reviewing the language of the President’s executive order and its purpose.”
The order states that its purpose is to “minimize government waste and abuse, reduce inflation, and promote American freedom and innovation.”
The Presidio Trust said in a statement that it’s confident that all of its operations are statutorily based and follow the law.
Under federal law, the trust is required to develop a program that manages the facilities at the Presidio through public/private partnerships that minimizes costs to the United States Treasury.
Since 2013, the trust has not received annual funding from the federal government to cover operational costs. It instead primarily uses revenue earned from “leasing the historic buildings that the Trust has renovated,” the trust said in its statement.
‘Nothing more than a political theater’
Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, whose District 2 includes the Presidio, criticized Trump’s order, calling it a “political stunt designed to stir chaos where none exists.”
“The Presidio Trust operates under federal law, its authority is statutory, and it has been self-sustaining for over two decades,” Sherrill said in a statement. “Trump’s order doesn’t change that — it just creates unnecessary fear for the 3,000 people who live there and the countless others who rely on the Presidio as a public space.”
The trust has two weeks to submit a report to the federal Office of Management and Budget that explains why its activities are statutorily required. The order also specifies that funding requests for non-statutory activities from the Presidio Trust shall be rejected from now on.
Since the Presidio Trust operates under a self-sustaining funding model, operations at the park will continue as normal, the trust said.
“This is nothing more than political theater at the expense of families, workers, and a national landmark,” Sherrill said. “San Francisco isn’t falling for it and we will do everything necessary to ensure the Presidio remains protected and thriving.”
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