Donald Trump has said he scored a perfect mark on his latest cognitive test, taken as part of his regular physical. According to the U.S. president, who has just been through one of his routine medical checkups, he answered every question correctly and posted a score of 30 out of 30, a result he described as a sign of extreme intelligence.
The cognitive test is something Trump has turned into a recurring talking point. By his own account, this was his fourth such exam, and he has repeatedly boasted about his performance in the past. I aced it, he said of an earlier attempt, insisting he got every question right and presenting the perfect score as proof of his sharpness.
As a CBC report explained, the assessment awards points across a range of fairly simple tasks, and a perfect score of 30 out of 30, the kind Trump says he achieved, sits at the very top of the scale. It is the result he has repeatedly pointed to when describing his own mental acuity and pushing back on questions about his age and fitness.
Some of the questions are deliberately straightforward. Test-takers may be asked to name common animals from pictures, such as a horse, a tiger or a duck, or to draw a line connecting numbers and letters in ascending order, starting at one, moving to A, then to two, and continuing in sequence until the pattern is complete.
Other parts of the exam measure orientation in time and place. A person can earn points simply for stating the current year, for giving the full date, and for identifying the city they are in. Each correct answer adds to the running total out of 30, building toward the kind of flawless result the president has claimed for himself.
The test also includes tasks meant to probe reasoning and visual skills. Among them are explaining what a hammer and a screwdriver have in common, and drawing a clock face that shows a specific time, such as five past ten. Repeating a set of spoken words back to the person giving the test is another way points are scored on the exam.
For Trump, the headline is simple. A fourth cognitive test and, in his telling, another flawless score. He has once again framed the 30 out of 30 as evidence of extreme intelligence, folding the outcome of a routine medical screening into his wider claims about being more than capable of meeting the demands of the office.