Trump mixes up his cognitive exam with an IQ test

After undergoing his second annual medical examination at Walter Reed Medical Center in October, the first having taken place in April, Donald Trump is once again drawing attention to his health and mental fitness.

While traveling aboard Air Force One for an important trip to Asia, the president claimed he had taken another «IQ test» at Walter Reed during his first annual visit in April.

Trump said he wanted to challenge Democratic Representatives Jasmine Crockett and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two lawmakers he has repeatedly described as «very low IQ», to take the same test, boasting that they would not perform as well as he did.

In reality, the test Trump referred to was not an intelligence exam, but the standard cognitive screening used to detect early signs of dementia, the same type of assessment he previously described as «very hard» and bragged extensively about acing.

The president’s comments have reignited questions about his mental acuity, both for confusing and boasting about a dementia screening as if it were an IQ test, and for the fact that he has reportedly taken such cognitive exams multiple times since 2018, whether at his own request or not.

During his remarks attacking the intelligence of Democratic Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett, Trump appeared to confuse the Montreal Cognitive Assessment — a dementia screening administered by clinicians and not an intelligence test — with an IQ or aptitude exam, saying: «We have a great group of people, which they don’t. They have Jasmine Crockett — a low IQ person. They have AOC — is low IQ. Have her pass the exam that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed. I said those are very hard; they are really aptitude tests, I guess.»

He went on to challenge both lawmakers directly, boasting about his own performance on the test and mocking their intelligence, saying: «Let AOC go against Trump, let Jasmine go against Trump. I don’t think Jasmine. The first couple of questions are easy — a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe, you know. When you get up to five or six, and up to 10 and 20 and 25.»

Even if it remains unclear whether Trump took another Montreal Cognitive Assessment in October, the president, during his second annual medical examination on October 10, received a mysterious MRI — an exam for which he later said the results were «perfect.» In addition to the tests and imaging, Trump also received his updated influenza and COVID-19 vaccines.