For a not particularly emotive man, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has an odd habit of wearing his apparent existential dread on his sleeve every time his boss, Donald Trump, opens his mouth. It’s become something of a political parlor game for the Twitter set in the Trump era: wait for the camera to pan to Kelly, or for an Associated Press photo to surface online, and behold the pained face of the administration’s conscience. This may be giving Kelly too much credit; it’s all too easy to project shame and embarrassment onto the usually straight-laced former Marine general, who has been a steadfast supporter of the president’s agenda. But Kelly keeps giving Trump’s critics ammo: On Tuesday, as Trump threatened to “totally destroy North Korea” in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, photos quickly emerged of Kelly holding his head in his hands. Social media users pounced: “John Kelly at UNGA is all of us.”

But in Trump’s White House, small crowds are large, esteemed prosecutors are part of a liberal conspiracy, and, according to Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, visible disappointment is just Kelly needing a nap. “I would certainly not read anything into that picture, any more than probably just like the rest of us,” she told Fox & Friends Wednesday morning. “We’re tired trying to keep up with this president who’s working hard every day to help America.”

Sleep deprived or not, Kelly and his reactions continue to win him sympathy among Trump’s critics. The first wave began during Trump’s second speech post-Charlottesville, where a group of white supremacists clashed with liberal protesters in a melee that left one woman dead. As Trump equivocated over who deserved blame for the violence, saying there were “fine people” on both sides, the chief of staff’s face collapsed.