A Democratic Strategist Challenges Donald Trump's 'Memory Question' Cognitive Test on Fox News
Democratic strategist Jessica Tarlov recently questioned former President Donald Trump's claims about his cognitive test performance during an appearance on Fox News. Trump has often cited this test as proof of his mental sharpness, boasting to Sean Hannity in 2020 that he had 'aced' it. However, Tarlov's remarks have brought the validity of this test, reportedly conducted in 2018, into question. On Fox News's The Five, Tarlov explained that cognitive tests, like the one Trump took, usually involve tasks such as naming animals and counting backward by seven. This highlights what the test is about and raises doubts about whether it's a good way to gauge a president's fitness, as per OK! Magazine.
Tarlov was replying to a remark made by former judge and co-host Jeanine Pirro, who also brought up President Joe Biden, whose own mental health has been a topic of discussion in recent months. "Trump took a mental acuity test and aced it. Why won't Biden?" Pirro enquired. "Well, this mental acuity test, which included identifying animals and counting backwards by a factor of seven, is something to give to people who have been in traumatic accidents," Tarlov stated.
It is 7/6/2021 and Trump along with Fox News are still talking about his cognitive test results. Guess who also passed it? My grandparents! Could they run a country? No.
— Natasha ❀ (@ndelriego) July 7, 2021
Congratufuckinglations for doing the bare minimum. Here is a participation trophy 🏆pic.twitter.com/M5lVZ9GgfG
Tarlov also referenced Trump's remarks from 2020, in which he discussed a portion of the exam he took. "It was 30 or 35 questions. The first questions are very easy. The last questions are much more difficult. Like a memory question," Trump said in 2020 to Marc Siegel, a medical commentator for Fox News. "It's like, you'll go, 'Person, woman, man, camera, TV.' So they say, 'Could you repeat that?' So I said, 'Yeah.' So it's, 'Person, woman, man, camera, TV.' OK, that's very good. If you get it in order, you get extra points. I proved I was all there because I aced it."
The cognitive test that Donald Trump keeps saying he “aced” is likely the MoCA Ronnie Jackson applied and fraudulently touted as a “fitness” test, when it is not—and when Jackson had neither the training nor the qualifications to perform a fitness test.
— Bandy X Lee, MD, MDiv (@BandyXLee1) January 29, 2024
The ex-prez also said back then that he had taken the cognitive exam 'very recently' at Walter Reed National Medical Center. Hannity was informed by Trump that the physicians 'were very surprised.' "They said, that's an unbelievable thing. Rarely does anybody do what you just did," Trump remarked.
The questions on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), which is intended to determine whether a person has cognitive deficits, closely resembled the test that Trump described. While the questions seem straightforward—for example, asking the subject to draw a clock that reads 11:10—they actually screen for issues that could arise in the early stages of dementia. In June 2021, a letter was signed by 14 Republican members of the House of Representatives, one of whom was Ronny Jackson, the former physician in the White House, urging Biden to undergo a MoCA test and asserting that the president was going through 'mental decline,' as per Newsweek.
