Cyclist who lost her job after gesturing at Donald Trump now builds cycle lanes as elected official 

A cyclist who lost her job for gesturing at Donald Trump has since become an elected official and has helped build cycle lanes in her region. 

Juli Briskman went viral in 2017 after she raised a middle finger at the motorcade escorting then-US president Donald Trump while riding her bike in Sterling, Virginia. 

After the image, taken by a White House photographer, emerged online Briskman lost her job as a marketing executive at a government contracting firm after her bosses said she had violated the company’s code of conduct. 

Trump owns a golf course in the area where Briskman was cycling, and in the district where she is now an official. 

In 2019, she told The Guardian: “I knew it was him - he’s there all the time.  

“There were all these crises happening in our country and he was just off golfing all the time.

“All of those frustrations just welled up inside me and I decided to express that toward him and his motorcade.”

The picture was posted online via Getty Images and The Guardian’s reporter David Smith observed that on October 28, 2019 the motorcade passed two pedestrians at 3.12pm, one of whom gave a thumbs-down, before the cars then past a woman on a bike “wearing a white top and cycling helmet, who responded by giving the middle finger.” 

Since then, Democrat supporter Briskman went on to win an election in November 2019 to gain a seat in the Algonkian District on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, officially being sworn in last January. 

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As part of her new role, Briskman oversees leisure facilities and has helped build cycle lanes in the district and also worked to remove a Confederate monument, along with helping to release funds for Covid-19 relief during the pandemic.