A ‘one of a kind’ national park in California with more than 4,000 residents is fighting against the Trump administration and DOGE’s drastic federal cuts.
The park has been in DOGE’s crosshairs after a February 19 executive order, titled Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, called for the ‘dramatic’ downsizing of the federal government.
As a result, The Presidio Trusts – which oversees the Presidio park – and other agencies were dubbed ‘unnecessary,’ the San Francisco Standard reported.
However, the privately run Presidio Trust responded to the downsizing order with a 14-page report that asserted ‘broad’ legal powers allowing it to offer an ‘extraordinary national park site at a minimal cost’ to taxpayers.
In a statement, the trust said: ‘We are confident that our activities are all statutorily based. 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 declared in the report that the park’s finances are largely independent of the federal government. It further argued that the park is a site of historical US military significance.
‘Run like a business, with a CEO and a Chief Business Officer, and overseen by a board appointed by the President of the United States, the Presidio Trust operates profitable business – commercial leasing, residential leasing, hotels, and a golf course – in order to fund park operations,’ the report stated.
The order also targeted the Inter-American Foundation, the United States African Development Foundation, and the United States Institute of Peace, and said they should be ‘eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,’ the outlet reported.
The 14-page report included quotes from four of the trusts board members who had been appointed by Trump during his first term, including Lynne Benioff and Marie Hurabiell.
‘Put simply, donors trust the Trust,’ Benioff said 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.’
Hurabiell said in a statement to the SF Standard that considering the sites independent financial standing, the repercussions of the order could be minimal.
‘In my experience, the trust is an extremely well-run, self-sustaining entity – it is not funded by taxpayers,’ she said. ‘The trust does a really good job of keeping that place running efficiently and effectively.’
The report was sent to the federal government’s Office of Management and Budget, led by Russell Vought, according to the outlet.
Vought, one of the chief authors of the conservative policy platform Project 2025 who now helps Trump with priority spending, has been at the forefront of efforts to shrink the administrative state under Trump.
In a press release, the trust said that it had generated ‘over $1.1 billion in value to taxpayers since it stopped taking annual appropriations in 2013.’
The release added that the trust was able to leverage more than $750 million in private funding ‘to renew and improve the buildings and lands’ of the park ‘as a result of its public/private partnerships.’
‘The Presidio Trust has generated more than $350M in net operating income since it stopped receiving annual appropriations in 2013,’ the release added.
‘Preserving and enhancing the character of the former military based and national historic landmark while protecting the bottom line had been the Presidio Trust’s focused since its founding in 1996.’
According to the Trust’s website, the park is one of America’s most visited national park sites.
Its 1,500 acres once served as the ancestral home of the Ramaytush Ohlone before becoming a Spanish military outpost in 1776. After three ‘successive nations’ and two centuries later, the post became a national park in 1996.
Now, the facilities serve as museums, restaurants, hotels, homes and offices, the website said.
The attack on the trust may be tied to Trump’s feud with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who has been historically involved in the trust and is reviewing the president’s order.
Two of the largest federal buildings in San Francisco were also attacked by DOGE as ‘non-core assets’ marked for sale, including an office building renamed last year as the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, the SF Chronicle reported.
Pelosi said in a statement last month: ‘We knew we would be under assault because there were people who just didn’t want something new like that, so we had a strong statutory bill.’
‘We knew we were breaking ground, and we were not going to leave it broken. So when [Trump] comes after this and says, “We want to review what a bill is,” he’s going to find a model for the country on that.’
According to Pelosi, the report lists the broad powers written in the Presidio Trust Act which she said was written to withstand attacks, whether they came from the federal government or private sector interests, KQED reported.
San Francisco’s local officials argued against the order in fury and said that Presidio had long been financially independent.
Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a statement to the SF Standard that his office is ready to ‘support Speaker Pelosi and our federal partners’ in protecting the park.
‘The Presidio is a crown jewel of San Francisco and a national model for how public land can serve the public. San Franciscans can rest assured the Presidio is not going anywhere,’ Lurie said.
State Senator Scott Wiener told the outlet that the trust is ‘a national treasure,’ adding: ‘[Its] a self-sustaining trust that’s created a flourishing and vibrant Presidio. But Trump can’t tolerate success if it’s not about him or enriching him. So, he’s trying to kill it off.’
‘This action is legally questionable at best. We’re not going to go quietly. When it comes to the destruction Trump is inflicting, we will have the last word,’ he vowed.
Local Scott Jampol, who was dropping his child off at the sites’ high school, said the park was ‘indispensable’ because of its housing, businesses, art organizations and special events, the SF Standard reported.
‘To have it kind of seemingly be attacked for no real reason other than malice seems inappropriate,’ he said.
Across California, protestors of DOGE and Musk have targeted Tesla dealerships in response to the aggressive push to downsize the federal government.
In late February, hundreds of federal workers and activists took to a Tesla showroom in San Francisco to rally against the billionaire’s powerful role in government.
Signs with messages such as, ‘Musk Must Go’ and ‘Resist Fascism,’ were held by protestors who specifically took issue with the dramatic amount of budget cuts and layoffs across government agencies.
A US Army Veteran, Ricardo Ortiz, held the megaphone and warned against Musk’s cuts.
‘This racist billionaire owner of this cooperation wants to downsize services. We cannot let that happen, brothers and sisters. We’ve got the power to stop him. We got to keep rallying. We got to keep marching. We got to keep demonstrating,’ Ortiz said in a video obtained by SF Gate.
The protestor organizer, Mark Smith, said the fight was one against dismantling the public services for private gain. He argued that the cuts were an attempt to gut services that millions rely on, the outlet reported.
‘This is not something federal workers have historically done – marching in the streets, rallying or talking to media. But this is an emergency,’ Smith told the outlet.
February saw more than 4,400 employees, some of whom worked for iconic national parks such as Joshua Tree and Yosemite, laid off by the Department of the interior and the US Forest Service.
In total, the National Park Service and US Forest Service cuts saw a shed of 5 and 10 percent of staff respectively.
In response, Colorado Democrat Senator John Hickenlooper posted: ‘National parks are part of our way of life. They’re where Coloradans work and play. They’re how we protect our most cherished landscapes. They drive our economy.
‘These staffing cuts could run our national parks into disrepair and jeopardize the benefits they provide Coloradans,’ he added.
National park advocates say the job cuts paired with the hiring freeze could lead to trash piling up, facilities falling into disrepair and long wait times for park entries and reservations.
‘There is nothing “efficient” about indiscriminately firing thousands upon thousands of workers in red and blue states whose work is badly needed,’ said Washington Democrat Senator Patty Murray, casting blame on both Trump and Musk.
‘Two billionaires who have zero concept of what the federal workforce does are breaking the American government — decimating essential services and leaving all of us worse off,’ she said.
Musk’s DOGE team estimated the cuts savings to have reached $55 billion in a message from the official doge.gov website, citing data since February 17.
The efforts to reduce government waste continue to capture the headlines as Democrats and government workers are protesting in the streets about the cuts.
Trump has defended Musk’s efforts, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity that they talk frequently about the efforts by Democrats and the media to drive them apart.
‘It’s obvious, they’re so bad at it. I used to think they were good at it but they’re bad at it, because if they were good at I wouldn’t be president,’ he said.
Last month, the White House clarified in court papers that Musk’s title was ‘senior adviser to the president’ and that he is ‘not the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator.’
‘In his role as senior advisor to the president, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors,’ the court filing noted, adding that he had ‘no actual or formal authority’ to make government decisions by himself.
Trump has endorsed Musk’s work as a result of his election mandate to cut government spending and reduce the federal workforce.
‘We got elected to, among other things, find all of this fraud, abuse, all of this horrible stuff going on,’ he said.
The White House did not immediately respond to Dailymail.com’s request for comment. The Presidio Trust said they will not be making further comment.