Donald Trump has been bragging about passing a dementia screening test since 2020. He has taken it three times and treats each passing score the way most people treat a Harvard acceptance letter, which is ironic given what he said about Harvard on Friday.
Now place that next to where he said it.
Trump traveled to The Villages in Central Florida on Friday, one of the largest retirement communities in the country, to deliver remarks on his no tax on Social Security policy. It was his first major public appearance since the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner the previous Saturday. The Villages gave him 68% of the vote in 2024.
While explaining why cognitive testing should be mandatory for all presidential candidates, Trump turned to his own audience mid-speech. “I took three of them,” he told the crowd.
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“I’m the only president to take a cognitive test. I don’t think Obama could pass it. Didn’t he get into Harvard with a C average? The first question is a lion, a giraffe, a bear, and a shark. A lot of you wouldn’t have been able to answer those questions.” The crowd apparently received the observation without objection.
Trump suggests his own supporters couldn’t pass a cognitive test.
I took three of them. I’m the only president to take a cognitive test. I don’t think Obama could pass it. Didn’t he get into Harvard with a C average? The first question is a lion, a giraffe, a bear, and a shark.… pic.twitter.com/SMavBO8mVa
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 1, 2026
A quick reality check is useful here.
The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, the test Trump keeps referencing, is a ten-minute screening tool designed to detect early signs of dementia, Alzheimer’s and other cognitive impairments.
It involves identifying animals, drawing a clock, repeating a short list of words and subtracting 7 from 100. It is administered to patients who display early signs of cognitive decline, not to people in full neurological health as a benchmark of intelligence.
The Obama attack arrived on Truth Social the same day. “Anybody running for President or Vice President should be forced to take a Cognitive Examination prior to entering the Race! By doing so, we wouldn’t be surprised at people like Barack ‘Hussein’ Obama, or Sleepy Joe Biden, getting ‘ELECTED.’ Our Country would be a much better place!”
Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and served as president of the Harvard Law Review. The C average claim has no documented basis.
Meanwhile, the concern about Trump’s own cognitive fitness has been building from unexpected directions.
Rep. Jamie Raskin wrote formally to the White House physician warning that “experts have repeatedly warned that the President has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline.”
Alex Jones said on his program that Trump “does babble and, you know, sound like the brain’s not doing too hot.” Marjorie Taylor Greene told CNN International that “his mental capacity needs to be examined.”
Protesters from the Democratic Club of The Villages and the nonpartisan Villagers 4 Democracy were present outside Friday’s event, in a community that has seen its largest-ever No Kings protest and multiple Hands Off rallies since Trump’s second term began.
Featured image via X screengrab
