What’s On The Cognitive Test Trump Brags He ‘ACED’ And Keeps Challenging Biden To Take?

Former President Donald Trump is constantly bragging he “aced” a cognitive test, and this week challenged President Joe Biden to take one, as other Biden opponents have done in order to exploit concerns about his age. But what, exactly is on that kind of test?

The president made a previously unannounced stop at Walter Reed Thursday for his annual physical, which showed little change from his last physical, after which an ABC News reporter asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if PresidentBiden took a “mental fitness or cognitive test” during his annual physical.

Jean-Pierre responded that “the President doesn’t need a cognitive test. That is not my assessment. That is not my assessment. That is the assessment of the President’s doctor. That is also the assessment of the neurologist who has also made that assessment as well.”

The president’s medical summary also noted he was examined by a neurologist, who agreed he is “fit for duty.”

But on Thursday, Trump again boasted that he once “ACED” a cognitive test, and asserted “All Presidents, or people wanting to become President, should mandatorily take this test!”

In 2020, Trump boasted to Fox News host Sean Hannity that doctors were “surprised” when he “aced” a recent cognitive test, a remark that drew mockery which reached historic proportions after  immortalized the words “person woman man camera TV” while boasting about his keen cognitive powers during an interview with Fox News’ Dr. Marc Siegel.

With age concerns being raised in the media and by ex-Amb. Nikki Haley, the cognitive test is again a hot topic, but it isn’t the tool to test a person’s sharpness that it’s cracked up to be.

Rather, the test that Trump took, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA), is used to screen for mild cognitive issues, and consists of 8 sections with a total of 12 tasks, successful completion of which are awarded points. Those tasks are:

• Connecting lettered and numbered dots in order
• Drawing a cube
• Drawing a clock (These tasks are worth up to five points)
• Correctly identifying pictures of a lion, a rhinoceros, and a camel (up to 3 points)
• Recalling a list of five words (no points)
• Reading a list of numbers (2 points)
• Reading a list of letters (1 point)
• Counting backwards from 100 by sevens (3 points)
• Repeating the phrases “I only know that John is the one to help today” and “The cat always hid under the couch when dogs were in the room. (2 points)
• Explaining the similarities between objects like “train – bicycle” and “watch – ruler” (2 points)
• Recalling the five words from earlier in the test, in any order (5 points)
• Knowing where you are, and what the date, time, and day of the week are. (6 points!)

At a now-infamous 2018 press conference, Dr. Jackson told reporters that Trump had scored a “30 over 30” on the MOCA, and that the test was not “clinically indicated” — like Biden’s current doctors and every other president’s doctor ever have agreed — but Trump insisted on taking it anyway.

According to Dr. Jackson at the time, Trump was the first president to take the MOCA test, because it’s only given when there’s a medical reason to believe there’s a cognitive issue — or when a dude orders you to give it to him.