One of the many ways the second Trump administration feels different from the first one is that this time it seems to be hitting San Francisco much more directly. During the first go around, whenever I was in San Francisco the horrors, excesses, cruelty, incompetence and crimes of Trump felt a little more distant than when I was in New York. One obvious reason for this is that Covid hit New York much harder than it did in San Francisco, but the strong Trump connections to New York were also driving this. 

Largely because of Elon Musk, right-wing tech leaders and their anti-democratic preachings have played an enormous role in the first few months of Trump’s second administration. Those writing, as well as many powerful individuals around the President have roots, or have spent time, in San Francisco. This contributes to San Francisco being more wrapped up in, and targeted by, this administration than was the case from 2017-2020.

Additionally, the Trump-Musk administration seems to have special animus towards both New York and San Francisco. Possibly this is because that while Trump holds a particular hatred for New York – the city that realized he was a fraud, a goniff and not all that smart long before the rest of the country did – Elon Musk reserves that kind of personal hatred for San Francisco.

This brings me to the Presidio, specifically the decision of the Trump-Musk regime to defund the Presidio Trust. I should mention here that I grew up about half a block from the Presidio. Back then the Cold War was in full swing and the Presidio was an active military base.

For most of my childhood one of my primary after school and weekend activities was playing baseball on the patch of green just south of the cannons at the Lombard Street entrance to the Presidio. As I got older, I continued to play baseball and touch football in the Presidio and occasionally engaged in less wholesome activities there. It is fair to say that between 1971 and 1985, other than on trips back to New York to see family, I almost never went more than 48 hours, probably more like 24 hours, without setting foot in the Presidio.

When the Presidio ceased being a military base and the Presidio Trust was created, the area had a bit of a facelift. Although I have never felt quite as at home in the new iteration of the Presidio, I have still enjoyed the place, continued to ride my bike there, stroll around some of the parks and, when my sons were younger, take them there.

At first glance, ending the Presidio Trust can be described as an unhelpful, foolish and destructive, but defendable, decision. However, in reality it is much worse than that. Ending the Presidio Trust is not just a funding decision that will make it more difficult for the Presidio to survive in its current form. It is very likely a first step in what could lead to a privatization of the Presidio and a test case for the kind of “Freedom City” that the right-wing tech billionaires have been trying to create for some time now.

If Musk and other close tech advisors have their way, the Presidio will be turned over to the same kind of right-wing YIMBY radicals who have tried, with mix success, to turn San Francisco into a city for the wealthy, the tech dystopians and real estate speculators while destroying so much of what makes San Francisco a great city.