Search icon

News

21st Aug 2017

WATCH: Donald Trump ignored warnings and looked directly at the solar eclipse

White House aides shouted at him not to look.

Alan Loughnane

Not the brightest idea…

Donald Trump did exactly what experts warned not to do on Monday evening when he appeared to look directly up at the solar eclipse without any eye protection.

“Looking directly at the sun is unsafe except during the brief total phase of a solar eclipse (“totality”), when the moon entirely blocks the sun’s bright face, which will happen only within the narrow path of totality,” NASA wrote in a safety message about the 2017 solar eclipse.

But of course, Donald Trump is never a man to do things normally and abandoned his protective glasses and sneaked a peek up at the eclipse, risking damage to his eyes.

His face can be seen contorted in a squint as he looks up at the spectacle.

This, from the White House pool report of the moment filed by the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs give you an outstanding insight into the moment: “At approximately 2:39, the President initially gesticulated to the crowd below and pointed at the sky. As he did so, one of the White House aides standing beneath the Blue Room Balcony shouted ‘don’t look.'”

Clearly, Trump did not listen…

He did eventually put on the appropriate eyewear though…