Donald Trump's latest boast about his brainpower has renewed concern in Washington over what his medical team is not saying, after a doctor warned on US television that his repeated cognitive tests look less like a show of strength and more like medical 'surveillance' for an underlying problem.
Trump used Truth Social to trumpet the results of what he said was his third physical since returning to the White House. In the same post, he revealed he had again taken theMontreal Cognitive Assessment, a screening exam often used to pick up early cognitive decline, and claimed a perfect score. That victory lap prompted MSNBC's streaming channel, MS Now, to ask its senior medical analyst to unpack what the test actually measures and why someone might be given it so often.
On MS Now's weekend programmeThe Weekend, host Jonathan Capehart put Trump's health claims directly to Dr Vin Gupta, the channel's senior medical analyst. Reading from Trump's Truth Social post, Capehart noted the president's assertion that 'Unlike other presidents, none of whom have ever taken an approved high difficulty cognitive test, I scored a perfect 30 out of 30 considered quite extreme intelligence.'
Dr Gupta did not hide his scepticism. He said Trump 'keeps bringing up the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test', but stressed that it is 'a screening tool at a very high level for early signs of, say, cognitive decline or dementia'. In his words, 'It is not something that assesses the ability to do the world's hardest job under pressure, so executive functioning. It is not that tool. It's not a neuropsychiatric test. So he misunderstands it.'
He went further, saying, 'I don't think a lot of people find it to be terribly difficult as he describes it,' and argued that the exam was never designed to 'justify what he's trying to justify, that somehow this is the flex that he thinks this is.'
Gupta said the central concern was not simply that Trump was overselling a routine screening, but that he was using the wrong measure to claim he can lead the country. The worries about Trump's mental fitness, he said, centre on his 'impulsivity, memory, ability to lead the free world here,' and 'that Montreal Cognitive Assessment tool does not assess for that, with the nuance that he thinks it does.'
The cognitive boast also opened up wider criticism of how the White House has handled disclosures about Trump's health. Dr Gupta accused Trump's medical team of dressing up basic information in what he called 'overly editorialised language'.
He highlighted phrases used in recent releases, including references to 'AI cardiac age' and even 'bruising on both of his hands from handshaking', which he said 'doesn't make any sense'. The timing of the statements also drew his fire. 'They release it later Friday night,' he noted. 'This is not transparency, frankly. It's just not professional medical language that you use to describe somebody's physical condition. So, there's a lot of concerns on basic transparency.'
When a President’s physicians start citing “AI cardiac age” metrics and explaining bilateral bruising from “frequent handshaking,” the line between medical documentation and political messaging disappears.pic.twitter.com/SXnIHAf8NL
Capehart then asked the question many viewers would have had. Was this the sort of cognitive exam a fit, confident president simply chooses to take, or is it more likely ordered by doctors?
Source: International Business Times UK
