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Today’s newsletter is a rare look at how business really gets done in Trump’s Washington. The piece you are about to read involved collecting and analyzing tens of thousands of records from the FEC, the court system, and the federal lobbying database. The internet is awash in hot takes and sensationalism. But you won’t find this reporting anywhere else.
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A tiny California tribe just donated $2 million to MAGA Inc. Here’s why.
A case study on how everything has a price in Trump’s Washington.
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On March 5, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, a small Native American tribe based out of the Rumsey Indian Rancheria in California, donated $2 million to MAGA Inc., President Trump’s Super PAC. It was one of the largest donations MAGA Inc. has received this year and particularly remarkable, given that there are only 41 people on the Rumsey Indian Rancheria, according to the latest Census survey.
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The story behind the Yocha Dehe’s extraordinary political contribution illustrates exactly how business is done in Trump’s Washington.
The Yocha Dehe operates the Cache Creek Casino Resort on the 185-acre Rumsey Rancheria in Brooks, California. For nearly a decade, the Yocha Dehe has been engaged in a legal dispute with the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, which is trying to build a casino on a 160-acre parcel in Vallejo, California, about 60 miles away.
Whether Scotts Valley can build its casino hinges on a technical determination by the Department of the Interior (DOI) about whether the site qualifies as “restored lands” — property with both a historical and modern connection to the tribe. On January 10, 2025, in the waning days of the Biden administration, Scotts Valley received some good news from the DOI. After many years of consideration, the DOI issued a detailed 30-page memorandum declaring the parcel qualified as restored land eligible for gaming.
But the Yocha Dehe was not ready to give up. Since 2019, the Yocha Dehe has been represented by Miller Strategies, a lobbying firm.
Jeff Miller, the founder of Miller Strategies, is one of the most powerful men in Trump’s Washington. In 2020, Miller bundled $11.2 million for Trump’s reelection campaign and raised another $100 million combined for Trump’s nominating convention and super PAC. In 2024, Miller co-hosted a fundraiser with Donald Trump Jr. that raised over $2 million for Trump. Miller also served as the finance chair of Trump’s 2025 inauguration, which raised nearly $250 million. Since Trump took office, Miller has been helping Trump raise hundreds of millions from corporations to construct a giant ballroom.
Miller himself says he works “the phones every single week to raise money, whether it’s for the House, the Senate, or for President Trump.” Politico suggested Miller was “the most powerful unelected man in DC.”
Before Trump’s 2024 election, the Yocha Dehe typically paid Miller Strategies about $50,000 per quarter. According to government filings, the Yocha Dehe was paying Miller Strategies exclusively for issues related to “COVID-19 financial relief legislation.” But after Trump won in November 2024, the Yocha Dehe began paying Miller Strategies $150,000 per quarter. The lobbying also concerned a new topic: The DOI’s “reconsideration” of its decision on Scotts Valley.
On January 7, 2025, the Yocha Dehe donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.
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As soon as the new administration took office in January 2025, the Miller Strategies team sprang into action. Emails and other documents obtained by Popular Information provide a rare glimpse into the Washington, D.C., influence industry under Trump. These documents were disclosed as part of the ongoing litigation between Scotts Valley and the DOI.
On January 31, 2025 — just 10 days after Trump took office — Ashley Gunn, a Miller Strategies lobbyist, emailed Alexander Meyer, the director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Gunn was well-positioned to navigate the Trump White House because she was Senior Director of Cabinet Affairs in the first Trump administration. She attached a white paper advocating for a reversal of the DOI’s January 10 decision. Gunn asked Meyer if he could help set up a meeting between the White House point person for Native American issues and Yocha Dehe leadership.
When Meyer didn’t immediately respond, Gunn followed up with a more urgent message on February 3, 2025: “Hate to bug you. If Scotts Valley Pomo Indians break ground before this is withdrawn it will be a terrible situation.”