‘Person, woman, man, camera, TV.’ Trump tells Fox News about ‘difficult’ cognitive test
President Trump on Wednesday described the cognitive test he says he “aced” in an interview with Fox News.
Trump said he asked if there was “some kind of a cognitive test that I could take” to “shut these people up,” referring to those who questioned his mental fitness.
“It was 30 to 35 questions,” Trump said. “The first questions are very easy. The last questions are much more difficult. Like a memory question. It’s, like, you’ll go: Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV. So they say, ‘Could you repeat that?’ So I said, ‘Yeah. It’s: Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.’”
“They said nobody gets it in order,” Trump said. “It’s actually not that easy, but for me, it was easy. And that’s not an easy question. In other words, they ask it to you, they give you five names and you have to repeat ’em. And that’s OK.
“If you repeat ’em out of order, it’s OK, but, you know, it’s not as good. But when you go back about 20, 25 minutes later and they say go back to that — they don’t tell you this — ‘Go back to that question and repeat ’em, can you do it?’ And you go: ‘Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.’
“They say, ‘That’s amazing. How did you do that?’” Trump continued. “I do it because I have, like, a good memory, because I’m cognitively there.
Trump also said that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden should take the test.
“Now, Joe should take that test, because something’s going on,” Trump said. “And, and, I say this with respect. I mean — going to probably happen to all of us, right? You know? It’s going to happen.”
Trump did not give any indication about what he says is “going on” with Biden.
Last week, Trump sat down with Fox News’ Chris Wallace for an interview that aired Sunday, describing the cognitive test he took as difficult and challenging Biden to take it.
Wallace pushed back against the president, calling it “not the hardest test” and that it included identifying a picture of an elephant and requriing a person to count backward from 100 by 7.
“Ninety-three,” Wallace began, before Trump interrupted him to protest that Wallace “couldn’t answer many of the questions.”
Dr. Ronny Jackson, the presidential physician in 2018 who is now running as a Republican in Texas’s 13th congressional district, said Trump took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which screens for early dementia or memory loss, NBC News reported.
“I didn’t feel it was clinically indicated,” Jackson said. “It has been my experience that the president is very sharp and he’s very articulate when he speaks to me.”
Health experts say the test doesn’t measure IQ.
“It’s not meant to measure IQ or intellectual skill in anyway,” Ziad Nasreddine, neurologist and creator of the Montreal test, told The Washington Post. “If someone performs well, what it means is they can be ruled out for cognitive impairment that comes with diseases like Alzheimer’s, stroke or multiple sclerosis. That’s it.”
“The reason most people take the test is they or others start noticing mental decline. They forgot where they parked the car, can’t remember what groceries to buy by the time they get to the store. They keep forgetting to take their medication,” Nasreddine continued.
The test includes asking people to draw a clock set at a specific time, recall words, and repeat phrases in order to measure short-term memory, executive functions, language, orientation, and visuospatial abilities, according to the publication.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 6:45 AM with the headline "‘Person, woman, man, camera, TV.’ Trump tells Fox News about ‘difficult’ cognitive test."