Did President Trump throw caution to the wind and look at the solar eclipse without special protective glasses?
Shortly after Monday’s eclipse, photos of the president appearing to stare up at the sun from a White House balcony circulated online, with many mocking Trump for not donning protective eyewear first.
Scientists: Don't look straight at sun during eclipse.
— DAN (@danWorthington) August 21, 2017
Trump: Hold my glasses. pic.twitter.com/3MySTJYq4d
OF COURSE he looked at it without glasses pic.twitter.com/X1BNE9ABlT
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) August 21, 2017
Aaaaaand here's your photo of Trump looking straight at the eclipse pic.twitter.com/5vv6sVTDIl
— Stefan Marolachakis (@stefanmymind) August 21, 2017
CNN: "Looking at the eclipse without protection can cause blindness". Trump: "I'll show you, fake news"
— Trey007 (@Tresse007) August 21, 2017
Today in Things I Didn't Believe Would Actually Happen: President Trump looked at the #eclipse without glasses. Twice. #SolarEclipse2017 pic.twitter.com/c6zPbx7RYd
— Anna Massoglia (@annalecta) August 21, 2017
But videos showed that Trump wasn’t as cavalier as the still images made it seem: He looked up for a brief moment with his naked eyes beforehand in what appeared to be a joking manner before putting on his glasses. (One ABC journalist could be heard saying nervously over the video, “I hope somebody gave the president and first lady some approved glasses by NASA.”)
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Someone in the crowd below could also be heard yelling advice: “Don’t look!”
Trump jokingly looks at sun without solar eclipse glasses on
— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) August 21, 2017
Someone yells: "Don't look!" pic.twitter.com/F0Y81l9rZc
Later, Trump — first flanked by his wife Melania and then joined by his son Barron — donned the protective glasses to stare at the eclipse for a few minutes before sporadically taking them off, and then merely glancing upwards for a second here and there before looking back down and putting the eyewear back on.
The incident was a reminder that, once again, a photo isn’t always what it seems.
Still, that didn’t stop photographers from capturing the moments when the president glanced upwards.
Christina Prignano and Brian White of the Globe staff contributed to this report.