White House criticised as it reshares image of Trump looking directly at eclipse

The world was sent into a frenzy on Wednesday, when the moon passed in front of the sun and caused a total solar eclipse, in a rare astronomical event which now won’t be seen again until the end of the century.

Most of Europe and northwestern Africa had the best view of the eclipse - which was the most the sun had been blocked over the UK since 1999 – and people used special eclipse glasses, colanders or viewers made from cereal boxes to safely watch it.

You know, as opposed to directly staring at the sun and risking severely damaging your eyesight by burning your retinas.

Unlike the ‘ring of fire’ effect seen closer to the path of totality, parts of the US and Canada were able to see a small ‘bite’ taken out of the solar disk.

This brings us to US president Donald Trump’s White House, which decided to mark the event by quote tweeting a Nasa livestream with a picture of the Republican doing exactly what you shouldn’t do during the August 2017 solar eclipse.

Watching the spectacle from the Blue Room Balcony of the White House, Trump was photographed leaning back and looking up at the sky with his eyes uncovered and squinting.

According to a pool report at the time, a White House aide standing nearby shouted the wise advice that was: “Don’t look!”

Yet he reportedly sneaked six glances at the eclipse without protection over the course of the viewing.

He did later go and put on protective glasses - but the White House shared a picture of him squinting at the sun without them on.

Unsurprisingly, the post was soon criticised by other social media users:

“Great point that he’s an idiot,” wrote evan loves worf:

Meteorologist Chris Gloninger said it was “the whole second term in one image”:

And writer Jim Stewartson tweeted: “They are insane”:

Ironically, not a bright move from the White House…

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