DISCLAIMER: This article was first published on October 27, 2025
On Monday, the president decided to take another swipe at AOC’s intelligence while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One.
“They have Jasmine Crockett, a low-IQ person. AOC is low IQ,” Trump said proudly. “Have her pass the exams I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed. They’re cognitive tests.”
The test he referred to is called the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MoCA.
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Unlike what Trump implied, it is a short ten-minute screening used by doctors to check for memory loss and signs of dementia, not a measure of intelligence. The test includes tasks like naming animals, repeating words, and drawing a clock. Its purpose is to detect cognitive decline, not determine who is smarter.
Despite this, Trump treated the test like an academic victory. “Let AOC go against Trump. Let Jasmine go against Trump,” he bragged, framing the MoCA as some sort of intellectual showdown.
He went further, attempting to break down the test’s difficulty. “The first couple of questions are easy: a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe. When you get up to about five or six, then you get up to 10 and 20 and 25, they couldn’t come close to answering any of those questions.”
AOC, never one to back down from Trump’s taunts, responded with her signature wit. Hours later, she posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Out of curiosity, did those doctors ask you to draw a lock by chance? Was that part hard for you, too? Asking for 340 million people.” Her jab hit exactly where it hurt, referencing the MoCA’s famously simple clock-drawing task.
Hello Mr. President!
Out of curiosity, did those doctors ask you to draw a clock by any chance? Was that part hard for you, too?
Asking for 340 million people. https://t.co/afaYP47knh
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 27, 2025
Trump’s doctor had previously announced that he scored a perfect 30 out of 30 on the MoCA. The report noted “no abnormalities in his mental status, cranial nerves, motor and sensory function, reflexes, gait, and balance.” While meant to reassure, the repeated public emphasis on this perfect score raised questions about why Trump felt the need to highlight it so often.
Meanwhile, AOC’s academic background paints a very different picture. She graduated cum laude from Boston University in 2007 with degrees in International Relations and Economics. Her education and career accomplishments make the “low IQ” insult seem less like fact and more like projection.
Online reactions made the contrast even clearer, with many pointing out the irony in Trump’s attacks.
The “aptitude test” he’s bragging about was literally designed to detect dementia.
Not sure that’s the flex he thinks it is.— Peter A Patriot (@PeterAPatriot) October 27, 2025
Ironic how he’s confusing an IQ test with a dementia test pic.twitter.com/zFyimjwNWt
— S (@kingslanding_18) October 27, 2025
The real story isn’t that he took this test. The real story is that he’s bragging about passing it. It says everything about the bar he sets for his own intelligence. 🤯
— Md. Mehedi Hasan Rakib (@mehedi_u) October 27, 2025
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