Voters in the District’s Ward 8 reelected Trayon White to the D.C. Council July 15 despite an ongoing ethics investigation and past antisemitic remarks, according to JNS.
White secured just under 30% of the vote, surpassing three other Democratic candidates, according to the Associated Press.
White represented Ward 8 from January 2017 to February 2025. He became the first councilman in history to be expelled in February after his arrest on a bribery charge. The FBI alleges that, since June 2024, White accepted a $156,000 bribe in exchange for using his position to pressure government employees to extend several contracts, according to a press release. His trial is scheduled for January 2026.
The councilman has also amassed media coverage for spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories. In a March 2018 video shared to Facebook, White claimed that the Rothschild family “controlled the weather.” The since-deleted video showed unexpected snow flurries.
“It just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man,” White said. “Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation. … That’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.”
White has said that the prominent Jewish family also controls the World Bank and the United States federal government. He later apologized and said he “did not realize Jews might consider his comments offensive,” according to The Washington Post.
“I see I should not have said that after learning from my colleagues,” White said on X, then Twitter.
“My apologies to the Jewish community,” he said in a WUSA9 clip. “We’re trying to figure out what our commonalities are. They’ve been a strong advocate for especially African Americans like myself, or marginalized communities, and so we’re trying to figure out ways we can utilize this energy to work together to fight against injustice and prejudice. I’m deeply apologetic about this because if I offend anybody with any comments I made, I want to own up to it.”
His fellow D.C. council member, Brianne Nadeau, said in a statement she believes that White’s apology is sincere: “I believe he is being truthful when he says he didn’t realize what his statement implied.”
White attended a Passover Seder and a bagel breakfast with local Jewish leaders. He visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Southwest D.C. with Rabbi Batya Glazer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, a group that has been deeply involved in White’s “public rehabilitation.”
The Washington Post reported that White left without explanation halfway through the 90-minute museum tour. Though Glazer said she was confused by his sudden disappearance, she applauded White for being “very sincere in wanting to come” to the museum, according to the Post. The JCRC declined to comment for this story.
“Today was an educational journey for me,” White said on WUSA9. “I’m looking to meet more of the Jewish leaders over the next couple of days.”
White alluded to future plans in Ward 8 to discuss issues facing both the African American and Jewish communities.
In a statement, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) expressed gratitude that local Jewish leaders were working closely with White rather than isolating him.
“This response by our Jewish community exemplifies the long and close relationship between the Jewish and African American communities in the District and in our country,” Norton wrote.
In March 2018, White reportedly used his Constituent Services Fund to sponsor an event hosting a minister, Louis Farrakhan, who made antisemitic remarks; he has referred to Jews as “termites” and claimed “the powerful Jews are my enemy.”
In a statement calling for White’s censure by the Council, Nadeau said she spent “several weeks” working closely with the Anti-Defamation League, Jews United for Justice, JCRC and many leaders and congregations to help educate White about stereotypes regarding Jewish people.
“As a Jewish person, and as a Jewish leader, I have a responsibility to take on this work,” Nadeau wrote in the statement. “The diversity of the District is its greatest strength. … To the people of Ward 8 who know too well how hard it is to rise up from bigotry, hate, and dangerous stereotypes, I ask that you understand how hurtful this has been, and that you, too, hold your Councilmember accountable.”
