As Spain, Greenland, and Iceland celebrate a solar eclipse darkening their skies midday on Wednesday, the Trump administration’s White House account on X joined in on the fun by reposting a viral 2017 picture of President Donald Trump looking up at an eclipse with his bare eyes.
In Trump’s first year of his first presidency, a total solar eclipse passed across the United States, stretching from Oregon to South Carolina, while being partially or fully visible in all continental U.S. states. The 2017 eclipse brought out millions of Americans who watched the solar event from their backyards or local parks, using special solar eclipse glasses to prevent eye damage.
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Organizations like the American Academy of Ophthalmology recommend using glasses with solar filters to view eclipses, as staring at the sun can cause retinal damage and, in some cases, blindness. Despite these warnings, at least one American bucked the calls for special glasses, as Trump looked at the eclipse with his bare eyes from outside the White House.
WHERE TO SEE THE SOLAR ECLIPSE
Trump eventually did put on glasses that day to view the solar spectacle, but not before media caught him without them. The photo of him staring at the sky quickly went viral, and the White House X account resurfaced it as the moon swept between the Sun and Earth on Wednesday.
Americans in some areas of the U.S., such as Alaska and parts of the northeastern seaboard, were able to partially view Wednesday’s eclipse, though the totality was only viewable in countries like Spain, Greenland, Iceland, and Portugal.
