Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Trump says he took widely-mocked cognitive test because people kept calling him stupid

Trump has been touting the 2018 test as an IQ test, which it is not

Shweta Sharma
Thursday 05 May 2022 13:59 BST
Comments
Trump says he took cognitive test because people kept calling him stupid

Donald Trump has said that people might call him “a dictator and other things” but they don’t call him stupid anymore after he took a cognitive test.

In an interview with CBN News, Mr Trump once again referred to a cognitive test he took in 2018 and stressed that president Joe Biden should take one too.

“And I decided to take one because fake news was having fun no matter what you did,” Mr Trump said in the interview. “And I took one. And you know what is the amazing thing that happened they now call me a dictator and other things but they don’t call you stupid.”

In one of the excerpts of the interview, which is scheduled to be released on Thursday, Mr Trump was asked about Mr Biden’s competency when the former president made the remarks.

“I think so much is riding right on somebody who is running for office, before you have the election, I think you have to take a test,” he said.

He said he knew what a leader was dealing with as the head of a country and that every leader was on top of their game.

“Some are nice, some aren’t nice, some are vicious [but] they are all smart,” he said, adding that he was “100 per cent sure” the war in Ukraine would not have happened if he was still in power.

The test Mr Trump referred to in the interview is called the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. He has previously boasted about it in rallies, touting it as an IQ test. He appeared to use his performance in it against his political opponents. The 10-minute test is, however, designed to detect mild cognitive impairment such as early signs of dementia.

Trump was asked to repeat a set of words — “person,” “woman,” “man,” “camera,” “TV,” and after some time he was asked if he remembered those words in that order.

“’That’s amazing. How did you do that?’ I do it because I have, like, a good memory, because I’m cognitively there,” he had said at that time.

He also boasted about GOP emerging as a successful party in the midterm election after JD Vance, a candidate endorsed by him, won the Republican Senate nomination for Ohio

“My record is unparalleled, my endorsements, it’s totally unparalleled,” he said. “Nobody’s ever had a record like this. I’m almost unblemished.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in