A lot of terrible things happened in 2017. The United States exited the Paris Climate Agreement, relinquishing responsibility for its role in our ongoing armageddon. The president called a hostile dictator “fat” on Twitter and now Hawaii is testing its nuclear sirens. Jared Kushner personally inflamed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Puerto Rico has yet to recover electricity following a hurricane that hit in September. ICE is terrorizing immigrant communities and tearing families apart. The State Department has been all but obliterated, and the Environmental Protection Agency is both figuratively and literally drowning in shit. I could go on, but I’d really rather focus on ripping out my arm hairs one by one.
Some among us, however, have been enjoying themselves quite a bit. Often, the Trumpists steering our train to hell will express their perverse pleasure with a smirk, meaning, as Merriam-Webster puts it, “to smile in an affected or smug manner.” Their relative satisfaction within the nightmare they have built, while predictable, has been rather dizzying to behold—it’s like watching a cat purr in an ice bath, or a friend laughing gently while stabbing themselves repeatedly in the thighs with a pair of scissors.
Let’s take a look back at this objectively appalling year through the tight, serene grins of some very bad people.
December 6, 2016:
Vice President-Elect Mike Pence smirks at a smirking Steve Doocy and a smirking Ainsley Earhardt during an appearance on Fox & Friends.
January 20, 2017:
Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway smirks at the crowd while arriving at Donald Trump’s inauguration, flaunting an infamous Gucci ensemble that can only be described as “Confederate cosplay.”
January 22, 2017:
Conway follows this up by enthusiastically informing Chuck Todd of the existence of “alternative facts.”
February 28, 2017:
President Donald Trump musters a smile in the only way his face knows how while delivering his first address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
March 7, 2017:
Pro-Trump commentator and tangerine racist Tomi Lahren smirks while calling #1 Enemy of America Colin Kaepernick a “baby” for protesting police violence against people of color.
March 29, 2017:
A few months before he was driven out of office for chartering a bunch of private jets, HHS Secretary Tom Price smirked for the cameras at a Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing. Live joyfully while you can, you know?
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