President Donald Trump tried to flex his intellect mid-flight Monday, publicly challenging Democrats Jasmine Crockett and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to take what he called an “IQ test.”
But the moment quickly backfired — the test he bragged about wasn’t for intelligence at all, but for cognitive decline.
While speaking to reporters Monday aboard Air Force One, Trump singled out Crockett and Ocasio-Cortez, saying: “They have Jasmine Crockett, a low-IQ person. AOC is low IQ. You give her an IQ test, have her pass, like, the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed.” He added, “I took — those are very hard — they’re really aptitude tests, I guess, in a certain way, but they’re cognitive tests. Let AOC go against Trump.”
He continued referring to himself in third person, “Let Jasmine go against Trump. I don’t think Jasmine — the first couple questions are easy: a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe, you know. When you get up to about five or six and then when you get up to 10 and 20 and 25, they couldn’t come close to answering any of those questions.”
Trump appeared to confuse several things in his ramble. First, he seemingly mixed up confused the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) — a ten-minute screening test designed to assess cognitive impairments from dementia or Alzheimer’s —with a traditional IQ test.
Canadian neurologist Dr. Ziad Nasreddine, who developed the MoCA in 1996, told NBC News, “There are no studies showing that this test is correlated to IQ tests. … The purpose of it was not to determine persons who have a low IQ level. So we cannot say that this test reflects somebody’s IQ.”
The second discrepancy was highlighted by online critics who also noted that Trump wrongly described part of the test. One commenter pointed out that the animals included in the MoCA memory sequence are a lion, rhinoceros and a camel, not “a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe” as the president claimed.
Ocasio-Cortez fired back at the president on X.
“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.”
The post quickly went viral with over 7,000 comments. Ocasio-Cortez was praised for standing up to Trump while his supporters were called out.
“The funniest part – the only people that think his cognitive tests are “good” and “hard” are MAGats. Those that actually understand KNOW the tests are simple pass and fail. The I got the highest score ever shit is typical Trump exaggeration BS,” wrote one person.
“Where do I go to cast my wager and when is this epic event to be televised?? #TeamAOC,” added another who joined many eager to see an actual matchup.
Others in the comments said Trump was mixed up.
“The ‘aptitude test’ he’s bragging about was literally designed to detect dementia. Not sure that’s the flex he thinks it is.”
“He got these so wrong they scanned his brain,” joked another referencing Trump’s recent admission of taking an MRI.
Crockett also issued a response calling out Trump for “obsessing over two women of color that are members of the house.”
During an interview with Kaitlin Collins on CNN, she said, “What is his IQ? He doesn’t even know what an IQ is. He don’t even know which scores are low. And I can guarantee you that whatever score, if he’s taken one anytime recently, I’m sure that his qualifies as low”
The exchange follows Trump’s long-running efforts to defend his cognitive abilities. In April, his physician reported that Trump scored a perfect 30 / 30 on the MoCA during his annual physical at Walter Reed Medical Center. He had reportedly achieved the same score in 2018 and challenged then-President Joe Biden to take the test in 2020, boasting of how he recited the sequence “Person, woman, man, camera, TV.”
Trump’s remarks on Monday suggest that he believes these cognitive exam results translate into broader intellectual superiority — a claim that clashes directly with expert opinion and has become fodder for late-night comedians.
In his August Truth Social post, Trump urged: “[E]ach of these political hacks should be forced to take a Cognitive Exam, much like the one I recently took while getting my ‘physical’ at our GREAT Washington, D.C., Military Hospital (WR!).”
While Trump recently returned to Walter Reed for lab tests and imaging, it is unclear whether he retook the MoCA or similar exam. His White House physician noted “advanced imaging” but did not elaborate on cognitive testing. During Monday’s remarks Trump also told reporters his recent MRI showed “perfect” results.
