After the White House released a memo on his May 26 physical showing a perfect 30-out-of-30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (see Trump, About to Turn 80, Heads to Walter Reed for His Third Checkup in 13 Months as Prior 'MRI' Was Quietly Corrected to a Cardiac CT), Trump wrote in a Truth Social post: “Unlike other U.S. Presidents, none of whom have ever taken an approved, high difficulty, Cognitive Test, I scored a perfect 30 out of 30, considered 'extreme intelligence.'” He added that it was his fourth such test, “all PERFECT,” and that “All people running for President and Vice President should be forced to take high difficulty Cognitive Tests.”
Medical experts say that is not what the test measures. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MoCA, is a roughly 10-minute screening tool for cognitive impairment. Patients may recall a list of words, repeat numbers forward and backward, subtract repeatedly from 100 and say the time of day and where they are. Its creator, Quebec neurologist Ziad Nasreddine, told PolitiFact that cognitive function is correlated with IQ, “But the test was not designed to detect the genius level of cognitive performance. It's meant to reassure that cognitive functions are normal.” Scores of 26 to 30 are considered normal. Neither Nasreddine nor Harvard's Ishani Ganguli would call the test “high difficulty,” and PolitiFact rated the claim False. CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner said it is “a dementia screening test, it's not an IQ test.”
The White House physician's memo said Trump's cognitive function, assessed with the MoCA, was “within normal limits” with a score of 30 out of 30; its summary also called his “Cognitive and physical performance” excellent. Journalist Jim Acosta previously took the same assessment on-air with a physician.
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry said the physician's memo described Trump's cognition “only” as within normal limits; the memo's summary also called his cognitive performance excellent. It attributed expert statements to the Cleveland Clinic and American Academy of Neurology via Salon, which Salon did not report; those attributions were replaced with experts quoted by PolitiFact. An unsourced description of the Acosta segment's tasks was removed, and the title no longer says the test measures no aspect of intelligence, since its creator notes cognitive function is correlated with IQ.