The Brief: Melania Trump's switch from a smile to a grimace as Ivanka walked by her on the final night of the RNC immediately became a meme about hidden resentment.

Bluesquiggle
DEEP DIVE

On night 4 of the RNC, a short video clip of Melania Trump smiling, and then looking more stoic went viral via memes. This moment occurred right after Ivanka Trump gave her speech. As Ivanka walked past, Melania smiled at her, but once she was out of sight, Melania dropped her smile, suddenly shifting to a less friendly face and blinking. When Twitter users weren’t making edits of Melania’s greenscreen dress, they were sharing memes of her smiling, and then not smiling at Ivanka.

Many people speculated that Melania’s face revealed that she dislikes and feels contempt towards her stepdaughter.

A body language expert, Dr. Jack Brown, weighed in, concluding that “she has considerable anger and deep disgust toward Ivanka Trump.” Although many interpreted Melania’s facial shift to be an eye-roll, he clarified that it didn’t appear to be an intentional display of contempt, but a result of her expressions shifting.

Other memes joked about Melania’s expression being robot-like.

More broadly, the video was applied to situations in which people act nice but are actually harboring resentment.

Though this quote doesn’t 100% apply, we love a good Pretty Woman reference.

For many, this shift in expressions was all-too-relatable.