President Donald Trump targeted longtime rival Rep. Nancy Pelosi‘s (D-CA) legacy with an executive order defunding the agency managing a San Francisco national park.
In a Thursday executive order titled “Commencing the reduction of the federal bureaucracy,” Trump proclaimed that it “commences a reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary.” These include the Inter-American Foundation, the United States African Development Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the Presidio Trust.
The agencies will be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”
The Presidio Trust was one of Pelosi’s most boasted-about accomplishments, establishing a national park on a former military base covering nearly 1,500 acres. The Presidio Tunnel Tops Park oversees the Golden Gate Bridge and represents one of San Francisco’s biggest tourist attractions.
In a Thursday interview, Pelosi decried the move.
“What is the purpose of this?” she said. “It’s a distraction.”
“I’m saying this to say, ‘We’re here to talk about Medicaid, Mr. President,” Pelosi continued. “We will not be distracted with other things. He called himself a king the other day. Really? King of what? Anyway, the emperor has no clothes as far as I’m concerned.”
After the Presidio was transferred from military control to the National Park Service in 1994, Pelosi worked with Dianne Feinstein to establish the Presidio Trust to operate it, and it soon became self-sufficient.
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Given its self-sufficiency, the park will likely be able to weather the storm. However, the executive order requires the Presidio Trust to submit a detailed accounting report to the Office of Management and Budget within two weeks.
Pelosi, the leading House Democrat during Trump’s first term, emerged as one of his most visible critics. After stepping down from her leadership position at the conclusion of the last Congress, she has been much less visible during Trump’s second term.