The Trump administration’s effort to rein in federal bureaucracy and spending has a new target in its crosshairs: one of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s favorite projects in the San Francisco area.
President Donald Trump announced in a Wednesday executive order that his administration will look to cut the Presidio Trust to the fullest extent possible, picking a fight with the federal agency that oversees the nearly-1,500 acre park in San Francisco. Pelosi worked in Congress to establish the Presidio Trust in the 1990s to manage the city’s famous Presidio, and she subsequently helped land a $200 million award to Presidio Trust in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to cover costs of “climate resilience” projects at the park.
Trump’s order specifically orders the rest of his administration to eliminate the Presidio Trust “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” and it is unclear just how much the federal government will be able to cut from the Presidio Trust. The Presidio Trust told Politico that most of the $200 million in IRA funding has been allocated, though Trump and other Republicans have promised to look to claw back as much IRA money as they can.
For her part, Pelosi argued Thursday that Trump is targeting the Presidio Trust in order to distract from potentially unpopular GOP policies and reforms. The Presidio Trust is considered a defining element of Pelosi’s “local legacy” built up over nearly 40 years in elected office, according to The New York Times, and it renamed its visitor center after Pelosi in her honor in 2024.
Moreover, Pelosi has also lived in the past in the Presidio Terrace, an affluent and mansion-lined neighborhood just south of the Presidio that has also been home to the late former Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and the city’s British consulate, according to The San Francisco Standard. In 2022, Paul Pelosi — the speaker emerita’s husband — was attacked by a hammer-wielding intruder in the couple’s home in Pacific Heights, San Francisco, another high-end neighborhood adjacent to the Presidio.
While the Presidio Trust operates on a business model that makes it largely self-sufficient and has not received any congressional appropriations since 2013, according to Politico, Pelosi has boasted over the years about managing to secure federal cash for the Presidio. Before 2013, Pelosi announced tens of millions of dollars for the Presidio and related projects in House appropriations bills in 2005 and 2006.
Beyond the $200 million from the IRA, Pelosi announced in January that former President Joe Biden’s signature infrastructure bill would be sourcing more than $9 million to pay for upgrades at the nearby Presidio Yard public bus facility, and she also touted $46 million in funding in 2010 to cover a roadway development project that the San Francisco County Transportation Authority says will improve access to the Presidio.
Notably, Presidio Trust CEO Jean Fraser has made political donations to Pelosi-aligned entities in the past, including a $1,000 contribution to the Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund and a $500 boost to Nancy Pelosi for Congress on the same day in October 2021, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. Fraser has also donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and political organizations, with recipients of her donations including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee, the records show.
Pelosi’s office and the Presidio Trust did not respond to requests for comment.
Story by Nick Pope of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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