SF’s Presidio ‘Will Continue to Run Normally’ After Trump Fires Board, Officials Say

San Francisco officials and representatives of the Presidio Trust are hopeful that little will change for the famous national park site after President Donald Trump fired the entire board that oversees it last week.

President Joe Biden appointed all six members of the Presidio Trust board. A seventh seat, which is supposed to be filled by a Department of the Interior appointee, was already vacant.

The board members’ firing was “expected,” said Lisa Petrie, a spokesperson for the trust — as is their coming replacement by Trump appointees.

“We’ve expected a board transition for a year, as the board is appointed by the President,” Petrie wrote in a statement. “The terms of three of our board members had expired nearly a year ago, and we fully anticipated a change in the board around this time.”

Following their firing, several former board members expressed appreciation for their time with the Presidio Trust.

“It has been a passion and a pleasure to serve on the board of the Presidio Trust,” former Chair Mark Buell wrote. “The Presidio is the most successful example of a Post to Park conversion in the country and should serve as a model for others.”

The Presidio Trust, which Congress formed in 1996 to manage and protect the historic 1,500-acre park on the site of a former Army base that looks out on the Golden Gate Bridge, has been a target of Trump’s since he took office last year.

It was one of four agencies named in Trump’s February 2025 “Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy” executive order, which calls for shrinking agencies that the administration deems unnecessary to “minimize government waste and abuse.” They were ordered to eliminate their non-statutory operations “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” and reduce their statutory function to the minimum required by law.

But the Presidio doesn’t rely on federal funding for its operations. It was created by the Presidio Trust Act, which gives it power to manage properties — and, therefore, the ability to sustain itself using the revenue from its rents.

In fact, the Presidio hasn’t received regular appropriations from Congress since 2013. A report filed last year in response to Trump’s executive order defended the trust’s work and explained its financial independence.

“So I think that understanding will make all the difference,” said Christine Lehnertz, CEO of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, which works closely with the Presidio Trust. “There’s not a budget to cut.”

In fact, San Francisco Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, whose district includes the Presidio, said he is surprised the president didn’t fire the board sooner, as half of their terms were set to expire nearly a year ago.

He said it’s thanks to work by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who helped create the Presidio Trust, that the organization can survive Trump’s budget attacks.

Pelosi wrote in a statement to KQED that she is disappointed by the firings but said “previous Republican appointees to the Board have respected the Presidio,” and she hopes Trump’s will do the same.

“Regardless of any new Board’s composition, I have every confidence that the Presidio Trust will continue to be protected by the strength of the legislation which created it,” Pelosi wrote.

The new members of the board have yet to be appointed, but according to Petrie, the park’s operations will not be affected by being without a board temporarily.

“The park and the agency will continue to run normally,” Petrie wrote. “The board provides overall governance and major policy decisions, but staff manage daily park operations.”

Sherrill said he plans to hold the new board members accountable, whoever they may be.

“We want to see people who love the Presidio, who believe in conservation, who have strong fiscal management, and who really love San Francisco and understand the importance of the Presidio to not only San Franciscans, but to the 7 million visitors nationwide who come through the gates,” he said.

The White House did not commit to a timeline for the appointment of new board members.

KQED’s Katie DeBenedetti contributed to this report.