President Donald Trump took in the solar eclipse from the Balcony of the White House on Monday, even briefly glancing at the sun directly despite a shouted warning from an aide. Sporting eclipse glasses — only for part of the viewing — and standing alongside Melania Trump and their son Barron, Trump viewed what was a partial eclipse in Washington, DC.
The partial eclipse began at 1:17 p.m., peaked at 2:42 p.m., and was set to end at 4:01 p.m. ET, The Washington Post reported. The moon covered 81% of the sun at the eclipse’s peak in Washington.
Trump, at one point, did look up at the eclipse without wearing the glasses, which could be extremely harmful to a person’s eyesight. According to a White House pool report, one of Trump’s aides shouted “don’t look” when Trump initially came out and pointed at the sky.
Much of the nation focused on the Monday event, the first total eclipse to cross the country in nearly a century (99 years). The path of totality, where the moon fully eclipsed the sun, stretched from Oregon to South Carolina, but much of the rest of the country was able to view at least a partial eclipse of the sun.
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