Donald Trump has claimed he is more intelligent than former president Barack Obama, saying Obama "couldn't have passed" cognitive tests, while critics point to a "red flag" over the testing. Trump made the remarks during a campaign stop in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Wednesday (October 28), as part of his midterm tour ahead of the November 3 elections.
Trump's claims in Ohio
In Ohio, Trump addressed the midterm Senate race in Alaska, highlighting how two men named Dan Sullivan were competing in the same election — one a Republican and the other an independent. Trump maintains this is a scheme to "split" the vote, and his administration has launched a criminal investigation into the matter.
Despite the gravity of these allegations, Trump veered off topic to discuss his own intellect. He said: "So we have a Dan Sullivan, and they put a Dan Sullivan on the ballot in order to confuse, in order to split up the vote. And the way it is, I'm a very high IQ person. Don't forget, I'm the only president to pass, without exception. I passed three cognitive tests."
Physician's report and critic's response
In May, following Trump's annual medical examination, his physician, Captain Sean Barbabella, revealed that the president had scored 30 out of 30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), placing him within "normal limits".
Political commentator and Trump critic David Pakman has highlighted a "red flag", suggesting that Trump is the first president to require such testing. He said: "By the way, it's so funny. He's the only president to have passed so many cognitive tests. He's the only president where people around him are going, 'We need to be regularly cognitively testing you. That's the red flag.'"
Trump continued: "I'm the only president that agreed to take them - and they're hard. Obama couldn't have passed. Biden, we don't even talk about. Republicans wouldn't have passed him. I won't mention names because I'm supposed to be a nice Republican, but I passed him."
What the MoCA test measures
The MoCA is a screening tool used to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and, as Pakman highlights, is not an IQ test. Among the questions featured are identifying animals from pictures, drawing a clock, and repeating sentences aloud.
Pakman said: "Trump wants people to be impressed with the fact that he passed a dementia screening test. It's not an IQ test. It's the screen for significant cognitive impairment. It's do you know what a giraffe drawing looks like? Can you draw a clock or what year is it? A normal result is meant to be reassuring in, like, a limited sense. It doesn't prove you're smart."
Pakman went on to say it doesn't "rule out" neurological issues, and that the suggestion Obama couldn't pass one was "ridiculous".
