Donald Trump stares into solar eclipse without safety glasses, while aides shout 'don't look!'

Donald Trump has been caught looking at the solar eclipse without safety glasses, despite all expert advice saying this practice is dangerous.

“Looking directly at the sun is unsafe except during the brief total phase of a solar eclipse (“totality”), when the moon entirely blocks the sun’s bright face, which will happen only within the narrow path of totality,” Nasa wrote on a webpage discussing how to view the 2017 solar eclipse safely.

“The only safe way to look directly at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun is through special-purpose solar filters, such as ‘eclipse glasses’ or hand-held solar viewers.”

But this didn't stop the President, who has a reported tendency to act against the advice of his aides, from sneaking a peek after taking off his protective glasses. He squinted as he briefly looked up at the sun.

Mr Trump watched the rare spectacle from the Blue Room Balcony at the White House – hundreds of miles away from the eclipse’s path of totality – next to his wife Melania and son Barron.

According to the White House pool report, the President initially gesticulated to a crowd of administration staffers gathered below the balcony and pointed to the sky. As he did so, one of the White House aides standing beneath balcony shouted “don't look!”

Mr Trump’s apparent failure to heed advice against looking at the sun was immediately mocked on Twitter.

“Thought warnings about Sun were fake news…,” wrote Twitter user Devin Duke.

Tricia Fairness‏ joked, “‘My eyes are the best. I have the best eyes. Nobody can see the eclipse like me. Believe me.’ - Trump on Eclipse 2017.”