When Donald Trump Bragged About Repeating ‘Five Difficult Words’ in a Cognitive Test He Took

In an interview, former President Donald Trump once proudly shared information about a cognitive test he took during his presidency, highlighting the difficulty of one specific question involving the repetition of five words. Trump recalled the challenge with excitement, asserting that the task was not at all easy as it may seem. During the interview with Fox News medical analyst Marc K Siegel, Trump shared the specific set of words, "Person, woman, man, camera, TV."

According to Trump, accurately repeating these words in the order earned him extra points on the cognitive test. He asserted, "They said nobody gets it in order, it’s actually not that easy. But for me, it was easy. And that’s not an easy question."

As per Intelligencer, Trump has been vocal about taking a cognitive test to address speculation about his mental awareness. In a previous interview with Fox News host Chris Wallace, he asserted, “The last questions are much more difficult,” he said. “Like a memory question. It’s, uh, 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.’ ‘Okay, that’s very good.’” Trump challenged Wallace, “I’ll bet you couldn’t even answer the last five questions. I’ll bet you couldn’t, they get very hard, the last five questions,” he said. “I guarantee you that Joe Biden could not answer those questions,” Trump said that a few years back he asked former White House physician Ronny Jackson whether there was  “some kind of cognitive test” he could take, he said, “Because I’ve been hearing about it. Because I want to shut these people up. They’re fake news. They’re making up stories.’”

While Trump highlighted the difficulty of the cognitive test, critics claim that such tests are curated to screen for dementia rather than measure intelligence. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, the test Trump referred to, includes activities such as identifying pictures and remembering a sequence of words, to detect signs of cognitive impairment. As per The Guardian, in the interview, Trump challenged Joe Biden to take the same cognitive test. Trump also took the opportunity to mock the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee at that time, Joe Biden in one ad asserting, “America would become diminished and weak. Just like Biden.”

Throughout his re-election campaign, Trump consistently questioned Biden's mental acuity, featuring ads portraying him as "old and out of it." Trump's repeated references to the cognitive test and his success in answering its questions have sparked debates about the significance of such tests in assessing a person's fitness for office. Critics argue that boasting about performance in a dementia screening test raises questions about the former president's judgment and understanding of the test's purpose.