EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump Accused of Waging War on America's 'Nerdy' Cyclists

Donald Trump is being accused of waging war on America's "nerdy" cyclists as his administration moves to slash funding for bike lanes and challenges projects across the country, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

The 80-year-old president, who once vowed he would "never, ever ride a bicycle," has overseen an increasingly hostile approach to cycling infrastructure, with federal grants frozen or canceled and officials questioning whether bike lanes worsen traffic congestion.

Trump's transportation secretary Sean Duffy has also urged lawmakers to restrict future federal funding for lanes that take space from cars.

Cycling advocates say the administration's rhetoric has gone beyond arguments over transportation policy and increasingly portrays riders as an easy cultural target.

They argue the message taps into a stereotype of cyclists as urban, liberal and out of touch with ordinary drivers.

A cycling campaign source exclusively told Radar: "This has moved far beyond a technical argument about where cities put bike lanes. Cyclists have become another character in the culture war – portrayed as nerdy, metropolitan liberals who somehow represent everything the administration dislikes about modern urban America.

"There is a deliberate attempt to turn the person riding a bicycle into a political stereotype. The message is that roads belong to motorists and anyone demanding space for a bike is part of an elite progressive agenda. That is why people in the cycling community increasingly feel they are being singled out.

"The Trump administration would argue this is about putting drivers first, reducing congestion and stopping federal dollars being spent on projects that make journeys slower. Critics see something much broader – an attempt to reverse years of policy that encouraged cities to accommodate cyclists alongside cars.

"What worries campaigners is that this isn't just rhetoric anymore. When funding disappears, projects are frozen and Washington starts talking about removing existing lanes, it has consequences on the ground. For cyclists, the fear is that a joke about nerds on bikes has evolved into actual government policy."

Meanwhile, Bill Nesper, executive director of the League of American Bicyclists, told the New York Times: "There is something there that they're playing on, which is 'Look at that dork on a bike.'"

The Transportation Department sharpened that political attack last month, telling National Public Radio that liberals believe "that everyone should ride a bike to their shoebox-sized apartment to eat crickets to achieve a phony climate agenda."

Trump's administration has also targeted individual projects. In Nashville, a $9.3million federal grant for the East Nashville Spokes network was frozen, triggering an unresolved legal fight.

In Washington, officials announced plans to remove the 15th Street bike lane as part of the president's initiative to "revitalize" the capital.

But federal judge Amy Berman Jackson temporarily blocked the move in April, finding an "absence of reasoned decision-making" behind the planned demolition.

Another $11.7million grant for a walking and cycling route in Fairfield, Alabama, was canceled. The majority-Black city has around 9,500 residents, while advocates said 17 percent of local families lack access to a car.

Fairfield mayor Herman Carnes Jr. said: "It got ripped away from us."

Duffy has argued removing road space from cars and trucks can produce longer travel times and wasted fuel. He has also rejected comparisons with cycle-friendly European cities.

Duffy added to the Times: "We're not Europe. I don't think we should necessarily buy into the European model."

The Trump administration's push comes despite broad public support for bike lanes.

A 2025 YouGov poll found 76 percent of Americans supported lanes around where they lived, including 66 percent of Republicans, although only about a third wanted more.

The country's protected cycling network has expanded dramatically, from 108 directional miles in 2000 to around 4,400, according to PeopleForBikes.Resistance is not confined to Republicans. In Boston, opposition has emerged to plans affecting Blue Hill Avenue, where critics fear new bus and bike lanes will worsen congestion and remove parking.

Reggie Stewart, climate and environmental justice chair of the Boston NAACP, said: "You're taking away parking and adding to an already congested corridor."

He added: "Ironically, in my climate and environmental justice work, we're opposing a lot of what Trump is for."

But on the bike-lane battle, Stewart said the president could prove an unlikely ally.