Trump Fires Entire Presidio Trust Board in San Francisco

The future of the Presidio’s housing, leases and public access was thrown into question as President Donald Trump removed the entire board of the Presidio Trust, the federal entity that manages San Francisco’s 1,500-acre former military base beneath the Golden Gate Bridge.

Trump sent termination letters on Wednesday, April 9, 2026, to the six presidentially appointed trustees: Chairman Mark Buell, Vice Chair Chuck Collins, Leni Eccles, Patsy Ishiyama, Bonnie LePard and Nicola Miner. The trust confirmed the firings and said it could still operate without board members in place, but no replacements had been announced, leaving one of the city’s most prominent public lands in a period of uncertainty.

The move was more than a personnel shake-up. It tested how far a president can reach into a quasi-independent federal institution that has long balanced preservation with commercial use. Under the Presidio Trust Act, six board members are appointed by the president, while a seventh seat is reserved for the U.S. secretary of the interior or a designee. That Interior Department seat had been vacant for years. The trust’s board materials say members serve set terms, are replaced or reappointed by the sitting president when terms expire, and act only by vote, with meeting minutes published publicly.

Trump had already targeted the trust in a February 2025 executive order, calling it an “unnecessary governmental entity” and seeking to reduce it. The latest action revived a broader fight over the park’s management model, which was designed to keep the Presidio open and free while using rents and commercial leases to pay for operations.

That model has made the trust financially unusual among federal land managers. The trust said it had not received annual appropriations since 2013. Instead, it relied on rents from more than 3,100 residents and about 300 businesses that employ roughly 4,000 people. Its materials say it generated $182 million in earned revenue in fiscal year 2024 and $230 million in fiscal year 2025, with $58 million in net operating income in fiscal 2025 reinvested in the park.

The Presidio itself is a National Historic Landmark, designated in 1962, and today includes hiking trails, museums, campgrounds, hotels, restaurants, housing and an 18-hole golf course. The trust says it has generated more than $350 million in net operating income since 2013, while another fact sheet puts the figure above $400 million. With the board cleared out and no successors named, the dispute now reaches beyond boardroom politics to the rules governing one of San Francisco’s best-known federal sites.