2025 Politics… in Emojis

Because a picture’s worth a thousand pundits

I have to admit, as semi-juvenile as they are, and as much as my mother perpetually abuses them in her takes-her-an-hour-to-type text messages, I’m nevertheless a big fan of emojis. I like to think of them as 21st century hieroglyphics. They’re fun, informative, and can serve a unique semantic purpose (if applied tastefully). I have no qualms using them in my day-to-day conversations with friends and family.

But that said, generally speaking, I’m aghast at the notion of emojis appearing in a Medium article. It seems cheap and tacky, and far too cutesy for serious discourse about serious societal matters.

Then again, I did once rock a pure emoji dating app bio and, perhaps shockingly, considering its total cheesiness, it served me ridiculously well. So I thought I might attempt the same with politics by presenting the likely hot-button issues of 2025 and the incoming Trump administration as an emoji pictorial.

Now, admittedly, nearly all of the policy enactments pictured are no laughing matter, and in fact, will likely unleash untold misery upon many of society’s most vulnerable members as well as those who empathize most strongly with their plight. And the intent is not in any way to mock that suffering. But dark times require dark, gallows humor…