August 21, 2017

Of Course Donald Trump Looked Directly Into the Eclipse

The president defies science, again.

Andrew Harnik/AP

President Donald Trump went to the Truman balcony of the White House with first lady Melania and their son Barron on Monday to join millions across the country to witness the solar eclipse.

Leading up to the event, scientists had warned against looking directly into the sun because of the irreparable damage it could cause to one’s vision, and encouraged eclipse watchers to wear only NASA-approved sunglasses. Trump defied these recommendations—twice.  

Here’s the first brief moment. As he turned his face to the sky, an onlooker yelled, “Don’t look!” Trump appeared to chuckle, perhaps having read this Slate piece beforehand.

https://twitter.com/SteveKopack/status/899709025469816832

Here’s the second, longer stare:

https://twitter.com/AndrewKirell/status/899709903929040897

https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/899706064161173504

After some uncomfortable squinting, Trump finally bowed to science and put on the glasses:

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

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THE TRUTH...

is the first thing despots go after. An unwavering commitment to it is probably what draws you to Mother Jones' journalism. And as we're seeing in the US and the world around, authoritarians seek to poison the discourse and the way we relate to each other because they can't stand people coming together around a shared sense of the truth—it's a huge threat to them.

Which is also a pretty great way to describe Mother Jones' mission: People coming together around the truth to hold power accountable.

And right now, we need to raise about $400,000 from our online readers over the next two months to hit our annual goal and make good on that mission. Read more about the information war we find ourselves in and how people-powered, independent reporting can and must rise to the challenge—and please support our team's truth-telling journalism with a donation if you can right now.

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