<\/p>\n
The Golden Gate Bridge can be seen from The Presidio in San Francisco in 2025. Roger Stone, a Trump ally, is working with a Bay Area tribe for control of the park.<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Self-described \u201cdirty trickster\u201d and longtime Donald Trump ally Roger Stone has been hired to lobby for the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe <\/a>of the San Francisco Bay Area, a controversial<\/a> group that last year petitioned the White House to take over management of the Presidio.<\/p>\n In a lobbying disclosure form filed on Monday, Stone\u2019s firm, Drake Ventures, reported that the tribe had paid it $30,000 for services in the first quarter of this year and another $20,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to public records.\u00a0<\/p>\n The filing, which doesn\u2019t have any specific information about what the lobbying efforts consist of or whether it\u2019s related to the Presidio, comes nearly two weeks after President Trump terminated the national park\u2019s Board of Trustees<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Roger Stone, shown at\u00a0Mar-a-Lago in 2025, is working with a Bay Area tribe.<\/p>\n Romain Maurice\/Getty Images for Latino Wall S<\/p>\n And it comes more than a year after Trump issued an executive order that threatened to \u201cdramatically\u201d downsize the park\u2019s operations. After that executive order, the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, which has been fighting for 45 years to be added to the Bureau of Indian Affairs\u2019 official list of recognized tribes, called on Trump to \u201creturn the Presidio to indigenous care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In a petition<\/a> circulated last March, the nonprofit group, which has about 600 members and reported revenue of about $700,000 in recent years, said the 1996 Presidio Trust legislation that created the national park and laid out the bylaws and management structure should be repealed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAs the current administration works to eliminate the Presidio Trust as part of its effort to streamline the federal workforce, we stand ready to offer a cost-effective, environmentally responsible solution to filling the stewardship void,\u201d tribal chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh said at the time.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible that the hiring of Stone could be part of the tribe\u2019s aggressive efforts to obtain federal recognition, a campaign that prompted a confrontation with members of Congress<\/a> in January 2023 and has generated conflict<\/a> with other local tribal leaders. Recognition would give the tribe\u2019s members new legitimacy, access to federal funds, the ability to purchase land and potentially even lucrative gaming rights.<\/p>\n In March of 2024 nine members of the tribe were\u00a0arrested<\/a> by U.S. Park Police during an unpermitted protest near the U.S. Capitol. A spokesman for the tribe has also been tied to the San Francisco Inquirer and the South Bay Chronicle, divisive publication<\/a>s with a history of attacking political opponents of Nijmeh, who unsuccessfully ran for congress in 2024 against incumbent San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren.<\/p>\n Neither Stone\u2019s organization nor Nijmeh responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Created by Congress in 1996, the Trust is a federal corporation with a directive to manage and lease property within the Presidio, a 1,500-acreformer military base designated a national historic landmark in 1962.<\/p>\n The park is self-supporting. It has not received federal appropriations since 2013, instead paying for operations with revenue generated from residential and commercial leases as well as philanthropic donations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Presidio Trust generated operating revenue of $182 million in 2024, the most in its history. It has generated $350 million in net income and over $1.1 billion in value for the national park since it became financially independent.<\/p>\n In a 14-page report written in response to Trump\u2019s executive order, the Presidio Trust stated that the organization is \u201crun like a business, with a CEO and a Chief Business Officer, and overseen by a board appointed by the President of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Presidio Trust operates profitable businesses \u2014 commercial leasing, residential leasing, hotels, and a golf course \u2014 in order to fund park operations,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s targeting of the Presidio was widely seen as motivated by his long-standing animosity toward Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, who led the effort to create a federal agency to manage what\u2019s now an urban national park covered by historic buildings, green lawns and cypress, pines and eucalyptus trees.<\/p>\n Pelosi also has been a critic of Stone, who was convicted in 2019 of seven felonies, including lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction. Trump commuted Stone\u2019s sentence in 2020 \u2014 which Pelosi called \u201can act of staggering corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cRoger Stone\u2019s seven felony crimes, which include lying to Congress and witness tampering, constitute grave crimes,\u201d she said at the time of the pardon. \u201cAll who commit these illegal acts should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n Pelosi spokesman Ian Krager said the congresswoman is \u201cnot at all concerned\u201d about Trump\u2019s threats to dismantle the Presidio or Stone\u2019s possible lobbying on behalf of the tribe.<\/p>\n After the trustees were fired, Pelosi said she has \u201cevery confidence that the Presidio Trust will continue to be protected by the strength of the legislation which created it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Golden Gate Bridge can be seen from The Presidio in San Francisco in 2025. Roger Stone, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[184,7,1725,13,101,103,102,104,106,105,2013],"class_list":{"0":"post-279522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-parks","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","14":"tag-san-francisco-news","15":"tag-sf","16":"tag-sf-headlines","17":"tag-sf-news","18":"tag-us-and-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n