Donald Trump Staring At The Eclipse — Close-up of Donald Trump squinting and looking up at the solar eclipse

Donald Trump Staring At The Eclipse

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Published August 17, 2026

Donald Trump Staring At The Eclipse is a viral photo of the U.S. president squinting up at the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse without protective glasses. The image spawned mockery about ignoring safety warnings and resurged in April 2024 around the next North American total eclipse.

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Overview

Donald Trump Staring At The Eclipse, also called Donald Trump Looking At The Sun, is a set of images of U.S. President Donald Trump squinting upward at the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse without eye protection1. The photos show him on a White House balcony with Melania and Barron Trump, briefly pulling off his safety glasses to glance at the sky2.

The pictures went viral within hours because Trump ignored the exact warning health agencies had spent weeks broadcasting, that staring directly at the sun during an eclipse can burn the retinas3. The image became shorthand for the president disregarding expert guidance, and it resurfaced online in April 2024 ahead of the next major North American eclipse4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (viral spread)
Date
2017

The original photographs come from press coverage of Trump viewing the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse from the Truman Balcony at the White House2. According to reporting compiled by Wall Street Journal correspondent Ted Mann, an onlooker in the crowd shouted "Don't look" at the exact moment Trump glanced up at the sun2.

The meme framing appeared the same day. Twitter user @leyawn 5 posted a pair of fabricated New York Times headlines claiming Trump had "suffered permanent eye damage," which pulled in around 23,500 likes and 7,800 retweets in 24 hours1. Comedian Paul F. Tompkins 6 then shared a short clip of the moment with the line "Hey, our President may have irreparably damaged his retinas?"1.

How It Spread

The photo pushed into mainstream media fast. On August 22, 2017, the New York Daily News ran a front page of Trump squinting at the sky under the headline "Not Too Bright!"1. Axios 7 and other outlets circulated the screen grab of Trump looking up bare-eyed with captions like "And he goes for it"1.

The image faded from active use but stayed cataloged as a defining Trump reaction shot3. It came back in a big way in April 2024. On April 3, Redditor Gavin-Oldsom reposted the 2017 photo to r/pics, where it collected more than 68,000 upvotes in six days1.

On April 8, 2024, the day of the North American total eclipse, Hillary Clinton 8 posted the photo with the single caption "Reminder:" and pulled in over 71,000 likes and 17,000 reposts in a day1. Trump supporters quote-tweeted her with references to her 2016 election loss, and other users paired the 2017 shot with images of President Joe Biden viewing the same 2024 eclipse in proper protective glasses1.

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