Donald Trump is once again touting his performance on a cognitive test—but this time, it’s raising more questions than reassurance.
Speaking off-script Monday, Trump bragged that he has now taken the exam three separate times.
“I’ve taken three,” he said. “No president, think of this, has ever taken one.”
He added that he likes to take the test whenever someone calls him a “moron.”
But the test Trump keeps pointing to—the Montreal Cognitive Assessment—isn’t an intelligence test at all. It’s a basic screening tool designed to detect signs of cognitive decline associated with conditions like dementia. Its creators have made clear that it’s intended to be simple for anyone with normal cognitive function.
It’s the same test Trump famously described in 2020 with the now-infamous “person, woman, man, camera, TV” sequence—something he once held up as evidence of mental sharpness.
Now, however, Trump says he’s taken it at least two more times since then.
Trump also pushed back on media coverage of the exam, claiming reporters only highlight the earliest—and easiest—questions, such as identifying animals.
“By the time you get to the middle, they’re tough,” he insisted.
In reality, typical “middle” questions involve tasks like naming words that begin with a certain letter or counting backward by sevens—standard exercises used in basic cognitive screening.
Trump made similar remarks just days earlier while speaking at a senior community in Florida, again emphasizing that he had passed multiple cognitive tests.
But for many observers, the repeated testing—and Trump’s insistence on promoting it—has only fueled more scrutiny.
If the test is meant to detect cognitive issues, critics are asking, why take it multiple times—and why keep bringing it up?
For some, the question isn’t whether Trump passed.
It’s why he feels the need to keep proving it.
Watch the clip below:
Trump: "No president has ever taken a cognitive test except me. I've taken three of them. One in the first administration. They're hard. The first question is easy. You have a lion, a bear, an alligator, and a squirrel. 'Which is the squirrel?'" pic.twitter.com/DfSHUcafVS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 4, 2026
