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.

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.
Melania is so done with Ivanka pic.twitter.com/CJNrlGnIEU
— Saint Hoax (@SaintHoax) August 28, 2020
Many people speculated that Melania’s face revealed that she dislikes and feels contempt towards her stepdaughter.
Melania *internally* every time she sees Ivanka pic.twitter.com/YnoRZQ1t6g
— Saint Hoax (@SaintHoax) August 28, 2020
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.
5/ As Ivanka turns and can no longer see her, Melania's mid-face grows tense, her nostrils flare, the corners of her mouth pull back and her upper eyelids begin to open widely.
Melania is feeling Anger and Disgust. pic.twitter.com/WJ7HvL1ird
— Dr. Jack Brown (@DrGJackBrown) August 28, 2020
Other memes joked about Melania’s expression being robot-like.
is she rebooting pic.twitter.com/YlFhxM7tyb
— Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) August 28, 2020
Melania’s smile code is buggy.
— Јордан (@jordangerous) August 28, 2020
More broadly, the video was applied to situations in which people act nice but are actually harboring resentment.
“yeah we should definitely hang. i’ll text you!!” pic.twitter.com/k872drtXED
— kelly cohen (@ByKellyCohen) August 28, 2020
Handshakes in tennis pic.twitter.com/21HyCEMA4M
— Cody Fitzpatrick (@CodyFitz96) August 28, 2020
Though this quote doesn’t 100% apply, we love a good Pretty Woman reference.
Ivanka was like: “You work on commission, right? Big mistake…huge…” pic.twitter.com/i7RY4uONug
— Randy Rainbow (@RandyRainbow) August 28, 2020
For many, this shift in expressions was all-too-relatable.