A Native American tribe in California whose leaders aggressively back Democrat candidates has raked in millions of taxpayer dollars for needy families while operating a lucrative casino, a watchdog found. 

The American Accountability Foundation released a report Tuesday, first shared with The Daily Wire, revealing that the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians has taken $28 million in federal grant funding since 1996 while operating one of the largest casinos in the country. The bulk of the money, roughly $27 million, has come since 2008, six years after the casino opened.

“The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians has been quietly raking in millions of taxpayer dollars for years — while openly attacking President Trump and conservative Americans,” American Accountability Foundation President Tom Jones told The Daily Wire, saying that the tribe should lose funding because of its partisan advocacy and lucrative casino revenue. 

Tribal leaders, many of whom live in million-dollar homes, openly campaigned against President Donald Trump and for Democrat candidates like Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris. Chief Mark Macarro has given thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and has been pictured aboard Air Force One with former President Joe Biden, according to the report. 

Other key tribal leaders also have a history of partisan advocacy, the American Accountability Foundation found. 

Victor Rocha, Macarro’s cousin and an official with the Indian Gaming Association, has a history of donating to Democrats. On a Threads account appearing to belong to Rocha, he posted that it was “okay to punch Nazis and Heritage Foundation members in the face.”

Tribal council members Catalina Chacon and Joe Murphy, Tribal Treasurer Amy Minniear, and Tribal Secretary Nichole Sutter all have links to the Democratic Party.

Neither Macarro, Rocha, nor any of the tribal council members responded to a request for comment.

Chacon, Minniear, and Sutter have all given hundreds of dollars to Democratic candidates, while Murphy has urged voters to “Make America Deep Blue Again” and be a “climate voter.” Minniear has been pictured with Democratic Senators Alex Padilla and Mark Kelly.  Chacon, Minniear, and Murphy all have million dollar homes, the American Accountability Foundation found.

Since 2008, the tribe — which has around 1,823 members — has taken over $13.4 million in grants from the Department of Health and Human Services, around $6.9 million from the Environmental Protection Agency, $2.4 million from the Department of the Interior, $2.2 million from the Justice Department, and hundreds of thousands more from the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, and others.

At the same time, the tribe operates a casino that generates an estimated $484.4 million in annual revenue. A 2012 CBS report found that members of the tribe made over $20,000 per month from casino revenue, while one ex-member put the number at around $30,000.

Since 2011, the tribe has received over $12 million through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) grant program, according to the American Accountability Foundation. In 2018, the tribe received over $900,000 in TANF funding, the same year the Pechanga Casino completed a $300,000 million expansion. 

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to bankroll the Perchanga tribe’s lavish lifestyles and radical views, especially when individual tribe members are raking in tens of thousands a month from casino profits. That’s not an ‘impoverished community,’ it’s a corrupt one,” Jones said. “Time to shut the spigot off and stop subsidizing them!” 

In addition to TANF grants, the tribe was given $368,583 from the EPA in 2024 to purchase a new dump truck and water tanker to promote “clean air.” In another EPA grant from 2025, the tribe was given $100,000 under the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” to fund an ozone monitoring system. 

In 2023, the tribe was given $185,000 “to develop or enhance climate action plans that establish near-term and long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goals and develop strategies to address the highest priority sectors to help the tribe(s) or territory achieve those goals.”

Macarro, who the watchdog reports lives in a $3 million mansion in Temecula, has a long history of donating to Democratic candidates. In 2024, he contributed over $2,000 to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign and has given thousands of other contributions to the campaigns of Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Al Franken. 

“Vice President Harris has been a critical voice behind the Biden-Harris administration’s unprecedented accomplishments for tribal nations,” he said in a YouTube endorsement video. “As president, Kamala Harris will continue this progress. She respects our ideals of self-governance and self-determination.”

He met with Biden on Air Force One in December 2024, where he spoke to the president about granting clemency to Leonard Peltier, an American Indian radical activist convicted of murdering two FBI agents. In one of his final acts in office, Biden commuted the sentence of Peltier, allowing him to transition to home confinement from federal prison. 

Facebook photo.

Maccarro has vocally opposed Trump, decrying cuts to American Indian boarding school research and Trump’s plan to shut down the Department of Education. 

“Let us be clear: This is not just an administrative change — it’s an attack on the fundamental right of Native students to a quality education that reflects their identity, history, and sovereignty,” Macarro said. “The trust and treaty responsibilities of the United States are not optional. Dismantling the Department of Education is a betrayal to Native Nations and future generations.”

Macarro and his wife, Holly, a political strategist, were guests at a state dinner hosted by the Bidens at the White House in April 2024. Holly was also a vocal advocate for commuting Peltier’s sentence, and has been pictured with Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

In a decisive victory for President Donald Trump, the GOP-led Senate confirmed on Monday the first judicial nominee of his second term.

Whitney Hermandorfer, of Tennessee, prevailed in her bid to become a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit by a 46-42 vote along party lines. She is poised to replace Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch, an Obama pick. A dozen members of the upper chamber did not vote.

The confirmation of Hermandorfer to join the Cincinnati-based bench that hears appeals from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee is “a boon to the federal judiciary,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said in a statement.

“As the Director of the Strategic Litigation Unit in Tennessee, she’s led major cases on civil rights and the separation of powers and is widely praised for her legal mind, impeccable qualifications, collegial nature and constitutionalist philosophy,” Grassley added. “I was proud to lead Ms. Hermandorfer’s nomination through the Senate Judiciary Committee and am confident she will be an excellent federal judge.”

When Trump nominated Hermandorfer earlier this year, the White House said that she was the director of the Strategic Litigation Unit in the Office of the Tennessee Attorney General, had previously served as an associate at Williams & Connolly, LLP in Washington, D.C., and boasted experience working as a law clerk to Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett of the Supreme Court, now-Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh when he was a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Richard J. Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The White House also noted that Hermandorfer earned her B.A., magna cum laude, from Princeton University, where she was co-captain of the women’s varsity basketball team, earned her J.D. from the George Washington University Law School, where she graduated summa cum laude and first in her class, and was editor-in-chief of the George Washington University Law Review.

“I am pleased to announce the nomination of Whitney Hermandorfer to serve as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social in May. “Whitney has been serving the Great People of Tennessee, in the Attorney General’s Office, where she has strongly litigated in Court to protect Citizens from Federal Government Overreach. A former Co-Captain of the Princeton University Women’s Basketball Team, Whitney is a staunch defender of Girls’ and Women’s Sports. She has a long history of working for Judges and Justices who respect the RULE OF LAW, and protect our Constitution, including Justice Samuel Alito and two fine Supreme Court Justices I appointed in my First Term. Whitney is a Fighter who will inspire confidence in our Legal System. Thank you Whitney!”

Democrats warned that Hermandorfer was too green and might give into politics.

“Senate Republicans just confirmed their first judicial nominee of Trump 2.0,” Senate Judiciary ranking member Dick Durbin (D-IL) said on X. “Whitney Hermandorfer is inexperienced and partisan – with a record that repeatedly put Donald Trump ahead of the law. This is the playbook we must watch for, call out, and vote down.”

When Hermandorfer testified during her confirmation hearing last month, she contended that judges should adhere to boundaries established under the Constitution. That came as Republicans had been pushing for impeachment of some members of the federal judiciary who were ruling against some of Trump’s actions in a way they believed had waded into activism.

“It is an extraordinary power, the Article III power, to decide cases … With that power, again, comes great responsibility and humility to understand the proper role of a judge is to interpret the law and not make the law or bend the law to whatever policy preferences the judge might have individually,” Hermandorfer said.

Hermandorfer later advanced out of the Judiciary Committee by a 12-10 vote. Other Trump nominees for judgeships were also reported favorably to the full Senate and could be confirmed in the days and weeks to come. If Trump’s second term is like his first, he still has more than a couple hundred judicial appointments to go.

“Tennessee native — Judge Whitney Hermandorfer — is the first judicial nominee confirmed by the Senate in [Trump’s] second term,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said in a post on X after the final vote on Monday. “She will set a benchmark of excellence for future judicial nominees — President Trump could not have made a better choice. Congratulations, Judge Hermandorfer!”

Grassley’s team said that during the first six months of Trumps’ second term, the Senate has confirmed 21 members of Trump’s Cabinet, “putting his team in place faster than the last three incoming administrations.” It also pointed out that the upper chamber has so far confirmed 89 of his civilian nominees, “outpacing the first Trump administration,” and confirmed 12 ambassador nominees, “which is more than the incoming Biden, first Trump and George W. Bush administrations.”