Woman Who Flipped Off Trump Gets Fired

Juli Briskman, 50, was a government contractor until the image went viral
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 6, 2017 10:25 AM CST
Woman Who Flipped Off Trump Gets Fired
A file photo of President Trump.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Last week, an image revolving around President Trump went viral, though the White House surely wasn't happy about it. In the photo—you can see it here—a female bicyclist is seen flipping the middle finger to the Trump motorcade as it passes her in Sterling, Va. The anonymous bicyclist became an internet hero in anti-Trump circles, but those 15 minutes of fame have now cost the woman her job. Juli Briskman, 50, tells HuffPost that government contractor Akima cut her loose from the marketing and communications post she'd held for the last six months because of the image. "They said, 'We're separating from you,'" says Briskman. "Basically, you cannot have 'lewd' or 'obscene' things in your social media. So they were calling flipping him off 'obscene.'"

Briskman says she had no idea a White House pool photographer snapped the image of her until it began circulating on social media. She then used the photo on her own social media pages, which don't mention her affiliation with Akima. Briskman accuses the company of uneven treatment because a male employee was able to keep his job after calling out someone as a "f------ Libtard a------" on Facebook, where his link to Akima was obvious. Akima hasn't commented about its decision publicly. Briskman also talks to the Washington Post, explaining that she is indeed a critic of Trump's political policies and behavior as president. But something further than that touched off the now-famous salute: "Here's what was going through my head that day: 'Really? You're golfing again?'" (More President Trump stories.)

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