Following the events in Iran, a USA Today poll found that the majority of Americans “by 52%-34%” believe Trump’s behavior in Iran is “reckless”.

Undeniably, Trump has consistently exhibited extremely reckless tactics when it comes to domestic and international situations. From the tweet war with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to immigration laws, Trump is unabashedly afraid of doing whatever he wants, and he clearly doesn’t care about the consequences. This has prompted many people, particularly critics of Trump, to question why someone would be so reckless with the tremendous power a president has. 

My answer? Trump is reckless because, throughout his life, he has never faced serious, permanent consequences for his behavior. According to the Washington Post, Trump has filed for bankruptcy six times. Never has the financial consequences inhibited Trump’s ability to make money, even if his poor business leadership assuredly led to many people losing their jobs. 

As of 2019, 25 women have accused the president of sexual misconduct. Moreover, following the 2016 Access Hollywood tape, it was revealed that Trump bragged about how his fame enabled him to engage in sexual misconduct, yet he still never faced consequences.

In the 2016 election as a whole, it appeared that no matter how vulgar and disgusting Trump was made out to be, a large portion of the population still backed him. Trump, once again, didn’t experience any backlash from his abhorrent actions. 

Even before his presidency, Trump’s actions never had an equal and opposite reaction. His being born into wealth and subsequently experiencing nepotism and extreme privilege for the majority of his life is a clear indicator of why he doesn’t care about what will happen to others. Why should Trump care about others when any of his poor decisions or failures have never led to him actually failing? Despite the trepidation many feel due to regular consequences, Trump never knows how it feels to truly fail and, thus, is unable to fear it.

As a result, Trump is bringing the entire country down to his level of recklessness. For those of us who can feel fear of consequences, this is truly a scary circumstance. 

“Trump is reckless in a lot of ways, not just with politics but in his own life. I would consider him reckless and problematic with how he handles conflict with other countries, particularly Iran,” said sophomore Naomi Strauss.