Voters in Washington’s Ward 8 re-elected Trayon White to his seat on the D.C. Council on Tuesday despite an ongoing bribery scandal and White’s past claims that Jews control the weather.
With 80% of the votes counted, the Associated Press called the race for White, who had just shy of 30% of the vote. He edged out three Democratic rivals, who split the remainder of the electorate about equally.
The D.C. Council expelled White in February after the FBI arrested him on bribery charges in 2024.
The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that White accepted a $156,000 bribe in exchange for corruptly using his position on the council to help renew municipal contracts.
In 2018, White posted a video to Facebook claiming that the Rothschild family controlled the weather.
“It just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man,” White said in the since-deleted video. “Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation.”
“And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city,’” he said. “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.”
In other videos, he said that the Rothschilds also control the World Bank and the U.S. federal government.
White initially apologized and embarked on a rehabilitation tour, attending a Passover seder and a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Washington Post reported that White ditched the Holocaust museum tour halfway into its 90-minute runtime and was later found by reporters outside the museum with no explanation for his abrupt departure.
White said that claims that he left the tour early were a “lie” and said that he was “done apologizing” for the scandal.
The newly elected council member celebrated with supporters at Aces Lounge in Anacostia on Tuesday in southeast D.C.
“The people have spoken,” White told a local news crew. “God is good. He protect me. He guide me. So whatever his will is going to be done in Earth, I’m submitting to that.”
White is scheduled to go on trial for corruption in January 2026.
