Cue the outrage cycle.

But before you panic about billionaires turning the Presidio into a members-only country club, let's take a breath. These board appointments are largely ceremonial. The Presidio Trust oversees a stunning national park site, but the board itself has historically been a low-impact body — more ribbon-cutting than policymaking. Lynne Benioff herself previously served as board chair after being appointed by Barack Obama in 2015. The revolving door swings both ways.

As one local put it bluntly: "This is a great big nothing. The board does next to nothing — these positions are sinecures."

That said, the optics aren't great. Stacking a board with ultra-wealthy donors who may not even live in San Francisco does raise legitimate questions about accountability. One SF resident noted the irony: "Nothing like appointing a bunch of folks to the Presidio Trust who don't even live in SF. That being said, this group doesn't seem like the type that would do stupid damage to the Presidio."

Fair point. There's a difference between patronage appointments and genuinely destructive ones. Every administration — left, right, and center — rewards allies with cushy board seats. That's not a Trump innovation; it's a Washington tradition as old as the Republic.

The real question isn't who sits on the board. It's whether taxpayers and San Franciscans retain meaningful say over one of the city's greatest public assets. The Presidio belongs to everyone, not just the donor class. If these appointees treat the role as more than a résumé line, great. If they start entertaining privatization schemes or sweetheart deals, that's when we have a problem.

For now? File this under "politics as usual" and keep your eyes open.