WASHINGTON — City Councilman Trayon White is running for mayor of the nation’s capital despite facing accusations of anti-Semitism for praising Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan — and for saying that the Jewish Rothschild family controls the weather.
White represents DC’s Ward 8, the former home of Marion Barry, who won a third term as mayor in 1994 despite spending six months in prison after a crack-cocaine sting in which he exclaimed, “Bitch set me up.”
“I’m running,” he wrote on Instagram. “Join me.” He confirmed his plans to local journalists.
White, 37, recently rankled local Democrats by being the lone vote against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city councilmen and their staff.
The councilman faced intense criticism in 2018 for saying that he was concerned about “climate manipulation” by a prominent Jewish banking family.
“D.C. keep talking about, ‘We’re a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man,” White said.
When local Jewish leaders expressed concern, White booked an educational tour of the DC Holocaust Museum — but then created a new scandal by disappearing halfway through the tour. An aide to White allegedly likened the Warsaw Ghetto to “a gated community” while at the museum.
White also stoked outrage for his defiant support for Farrakhan, including donating $500 from his constituent services fund to help finance a Chicago event where the black separatist denounced Jews. In 2013, White tweeted that he was “honored” to share a birthday with Farrakhan.
Bowser, 49, was re-elected to a second term in 2018 with more than 76 percent of the vote, but she faces pressure from her political left in the lopsidedly Democratic city and national ridicule for alleged COVID-19 hypocrisy.
Bowser is considering seeking a third term in 2022, but may face a crowded Democratic primary.
Last year, Bowser outraged anti-police brutality activists by imposing a 7 p.m. curfew after protests and rioting following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin. Thousands disobeyed her rule and local cops mass-arrested about 200 people on June 1.
As protesters turned their anger toward Bowser, she deftly changed the topic four days later by painting the words “Black Lives Matter” on a street near the White House, jabbing at then-President Donald Trump and earning significant media attention.
Some activists decried Bowser’s street art as “performative as hell” and added their own painted message “Defund the Police” to the roadway, but it was paved over about two months later.
When violent crime, including murders and carjackings, spiked in DC over the past year, Bowser requested $11 million in increased police funding to hire 170 new cops. The city council slashed the request in August and approved $5 million more.
Bowser in July earned national ridicule when she announced an “emergency” indoor mask mandate for local businesses, but delayed it to take effect after her own mask-free indoor birthday party with comedian Dave Chappelle. Bowser was photographed the next day without a mask during an indoor wedding reception.