He took a trivial cognitive ability test, and passed it. Now he won’t shut up about it. I guess he’s really impressed by the fact that he can remember six words, but the rest of us should be unimpressed by his obsession with it.
Oh well, at least we can agree: this was the high water mark of his presidency. Take that test and stick it to the refrigerator with a magnet!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/21/donald-trump-ghislaine-maxwell-i-wish-her-well
One might hope that expressing support for someone on trial for procurement of minors for a convicted paedophile might be too much even for Trump supporters.
Did he? All we have is his word and the word of his flunkies who have every reason to lie.
@2 Yeah despite the facile nature of the test, the actual results are as elusive as his tax returns.
Trump: Billionaire Genius who offers no proof of being a billionaire or a genius.
What does it say about the current state of things that the occupant of the White House even takes a cognitive ability test? I’m genuinely asking because maybe there’s a legit reason, but I can’t imagine any other president except maybe Ronald Reagan in a situation where anyone would waste the time suggesting taking a cognitive ability test (jokes about W’s intelligence notwithstanding, he never seemed in the throes of neurocognitive degeneration).
From the very first moment I heard that Trump had ‘aced’ the cognitive I had my suspicions. Does anyone believe for a moment that he wasn’t coached beforehand? The test is easily accessed online. Trump has done everything in his power to prevent the release of his high school and college grades, which makes you wonder how bad they must be. And now we learn that he may have hired someone to take his SATs. Given his track record I am convinced that he was helped. You know, cheated.
They gave Trump a cognitive test, but his daily actions prove that he’s not capable of passing one.
This is a classic case of “Who do you believe, me of your lying eyes/ears?”
We see Trump, we hear him speak. We know he’s not rational. And we know that facts and memories are altered constantly in his head. Frankly, I don’t believe that he did pass the test, though as someone else pointed out, the mere fact you have to consider GIVING such a test shows how far he’s gone. As in someone official looked at the guy in charge of nuclear weapons and said “Damn, can you prove you’re not literally brain damaged?
It shows that it is business as usual in the last greatest superpower, with 40% of the world’s nuclear weapons.
Ronald Reagan was clearly suffering from Alzheimers during his second term in office. The people around him knew it and covered for him.
He announced it not long after he left office.
Our choice this next election will be either Trump again, or a 78 year old male who seems to be more cognitively intact than Trump, but not by much.
Ironic is, “the last five questions are tough”, number of words that begin with a letter (example I have uses the letter F), repeating a sentence, abstraction (knowing a banana and apple are both fruits), delayed recall of words (without and with cues) and orientation in terms of self, time and place.
If those are hard for him, he’s got to be really far gone!
https://www.parkinsons.va.gov/resources/MOCA-Test-English.pdf
Due to some service connected TBI’s I’ve had, I would score low on recall of words or numbers.
@mailliw #1:
One might hope, but one would be hoping in vain. Time and time again, cult members have proven that cults don’t work like that (c.f. Jim Jones, c.f. The Order of the Solar Temple.
I don’t pretend to understand it, but some (often a very large proportion) of the members of cults are quite literally prepared to die rather than abandon their Leader. Any evidence contradicting their faith in the Leader’s goodness is either dismissed outright, or spun into a positive attribute or action. (In this case, QAnon people have already been refering to 45’s statement as just another brilliant 5-D chess move).
If you don’t actually believe that 45’s followers are a cult, well, that’s something that could still be up for debate, I suppose – but every single time I hear them say anything at all about him, it reinforces my conviction that they are.
Trumpetbum’s message is not aimed at the likes of you, PZ.
Kome @ 4
To be fair, I think EVERY public official must pass regular and very, very public cognitive, psychological, and academic tests before they are considered for office and should be INSTANTLY removed from power upon any evidence of mental decline. Four of the last six Republican presidents were public sociopaths (e.g. Nixon, Trump), senile dotards (e.g. Reagan, Trump), or morons (e.g. Dubbya, Trump), revealing the short-comings or our horribly outdated 18th century constitution.
@8
“knowing a banana and apple are both fruits”
The proctor would hate me because I’m the guy who would point out that technically “bananas are a berry not a fruit”.
Is that Trump talking about he size of his…well…er…
Oh, my.
@Ray Ceeya, #12: Berries are fruits.
I guarantee you, if that black guy had started slurring and talking like an Alzheimers’ patient they’d have been all full of concerns about his mental health you betcha.
Akira MacKenzie@#11:
To be fair, I think EVERY public official must pass regular and very, very public cognitive, psychological, and academic tests before they are considered for office and should be INSTANTLY removed from power upon any evidence of mental decline.
If they can require drug tests in order to get public assistance, every law-maker should be subject to a constant regime of testing. Can’t have an alcoholic or a painkiller fiend in the white house – look what happened when Andrew Johnson got into office. Nossir!
Why does he need to be coached beforehand?
All he needs is an aide standing by to “remind” him of the correct answers. The doctor could be technically truthful in saying that the responses were emitted by Trump.
Mental health test theater.
Why would he even have to take such a test unless there are questions concerning his cognitive ability in the first place?
The man who designed the test said that it was deliberately intended not to be difficult. A normal person will have no trouble. Someone with cognitive impairment — i.e. the kind of person the test is intended to identify — will have trouble. Trump already said he thought it was challenging and that most people couldn’t do it. Part of that is probably his usual hyperbole, but you have to figure that he found it difficult.
saying “it was hard” is telling us [err me] that he failed it, and is lying about passing it with flying colors. I have experience taking them after my severe TBI
His supposed five word list – PERSON, WOMAN, MAN, CAMERA, TV – sounds like it was modified just for him.
The 2010 MoCA among the 2015 uploads on their website had three variant lists for that edition:
FACE, VELVET, CHURCH, DAISY, RED
TRUCK, BANANA, VIOLIN, DESK, GREEN
TRAIN, EGG, HAT, CHAIR, BLUE
These lists seem to be set up to make associations between the individual words more difficult.
If he’s telling the truth about his list, it was simplified for him and his obsessions.
I heard he aced the Maintain Four Limbs and a Head for the Duration of a Test test. Doctors have never seen someone retain four limbs and a head like he did. It was incredible.
ChrisLu44 on Twitter: “Obama didn’t brag half as much about winning a Nobel Peace Prize as Trump is about passing a dementia test.”
It’s pretty clear that he thinks he passed an intelligence test rather than a cognitive impairment test. So being the only one who ever got all the answers right, as he says his doctors marveled with tears in their eyes, proves he’s the world’s top genius!
daved @19: It’s been known for years that Trump is barely literate. The fact that it’s a written test would make it difficult for him by itself, regardless of test material.
25 microraptor
The fact that it’s a written test ….
It is not really a written test though one part requires that the testee know the first 5 or 6 letters of the Latin alphabet and the first 5 or 6 Arabic numerals and their order. One would need a Gr. 1 or 2 literacy level.
It is a very, very, simple 5 minute test for cognitive impairment. Something a family doctor could use to see if there was a need for a referral to a specialist.
The touchy part is the camel.
observantsquirrel @21:
I also noticed how all the words easily link together. Except I just went for the default and assumed he’s lying that that was the list. But I like your theory that the gave him the easy list. He really seems to believe he’s very smart and proves it by repeating the list over and over.
aronymous @27:
Most likely he does not remember the actual list …. ?!
Akira MacKenzie @11–This! All elected officials should have to pass a brief battery of tests, mental and physical, depending on what kind of job they do. Anyone elected to a position in the national government should have to pass a test on the Constitution and other laws. The test for new US citizens would probably be good enough. No way Grump could pass that, I reckon.
I went to an online example of the MoCT that everyone seems to be posting. It was absurdly easy and in my mind acing it would show no signs of genius (which it isn’t designed to test anyway), just whether someone is starting to show dementia.
And, as you say, Trump bragging about it shows pretty much he has never aced a test before.
@ 30 Mobius
It’s roughly the equivalent of a thermometer or a blood pressure machine.
Man woman camera TV…
..oh Donnie, that wasn’t your cognitive test, that was the porno you watched last night.
I like to think someone has been trolling him. They set him up, knowing he wouldn’t stop talking about his “very good results”.
@11 Akira MacKenzie. Absolutely. I believe we in the UK should test parliamentary candidates – we have a PM who is a pathological liar who is currently as incoherent as Trump, a Foreign Secretary who was surprised to learn that Dover was an important cross-channel port, and a Man Who Wears a Pink Tie as Health Secretary …
Now and again I am asked to interpret for patients with limited or no English when the medics think it’s time to check their mental acuity. It seems the test we use is the same one that Trump is so proud of passing. It’s sad to see someone with dementia realising they can’t recognise an elephant or remember the five words; but I have to admit that Trumpolini boasting about “acing the test” is the funniest thing I’ve heard for months. Until I remember he’s the executive Head of State of the country with more weapons than any other.
@Ray Ceeya #12, were I performing the evaluation, I’d probably add an extra point for that accurate observation.
It’s been over a year since my last cognitive exam (I’m fine, long story, don’t ask) and I can still repeat the three words I was asked to remember. Apple, penny, table.
@WMDKitty, good job! I might or might not manage to pass that test.
Meanwhile, I process things a bit differently to compensate for so many bell ringing events over the decades.
A standing familial joke is, “Hulk smash?! Bulk crush!”. ;)
In short, I’m just gonna sit on it for a while, while I figure it all out. ;)
But, I do have a sense of humor, shared by an Alzheimer’s patient, “I get to meet new people all the time”, given that I’m damned near face blind, but am able to process behavioral traits enough to eventually tag someone accurately.