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Tuesday, April 16, 2024
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Trump’s naked stare eclipses White House photo op

By  Sun-Times staff
   
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President Donald Trump looks up toward the Solar Eclipse on the Truman Balcony at the White House on August 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

A brief photo op of the president of the United States and his family on a White House balcony looking in awe at a solar eclipse.

What could go wrong?

Social media exploded Monday when media outlets ran photos of President Donald Trump looking up at the eclipse without protective eyewear — after days of experts warning people about not doing just that.

At one point during the brief viewing, Trump gestured to the crowd below on the White House lawn and pointed up at the sky, according to a reporter’s pool report.

“Don’t look,” a White House aide standing below the Blue Room balcony shouted to the president.

He looked.

And immediately everyone on Twitter was a comedian — including the comedians.

Filmaker and liberal activist Michael Moore mimicked the president with his tweet: “Dishonest, fake news media said don’t look at eclipse w/o glasses, so I did! JOBS!”

Comedian George Wallace chimed in with, “I mean seriously, ALL he had to do was not do something stupid while bein’ photographed looking at the damn eclipse and whatnot.”

But some of the sharpest digs came from average @janes and @joes.

Trump “doesn’t need protective eye wear! ‘I have the greatest corneas of all time, really. The best,’” @shawnahaze tweeted.

“You know Sean Spicer would have argued so hard that Trump didn’t look into the eclipse,” MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin tweeted.

@Papapishu imagined this exchange — “TRUMP: So I can just look right at the eclipse right? NASA: you know what? sure.”

@danWorthington tweeted: “Scientists: Don’t look straight at sun during eclipse. Trump: Hold my glasses.”

But not everyone was amused.

“I don’t like the guy either, but seriously people — stop nit-picking everything he does,” @chicagosean tweeted. “Jesus.”

But @4everNeverTrump concluded, “I honestly didn’t think there could be a way Trump could embarrass us just by watching a solar eclipse.

“Yet, here we are.”

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