President Donald Trump on Wednesday proclaimed himself a “freaking genius” amid a packed travel schedule meant to boost Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections.
Trump made the dubious claim while speaking at a rally in Bullhead City, Arizona. His “genius” status, he said, was determined after he “aced” a series of cognitive tests, one of which required him to memorize five words.
“It’s a very standard test, but very tough. There are a few people in this audience that can,” the president told the crowd. “Once you get past the first question, which is quite easy, they show you a lion, a bear, a giraffe, and a snake, and they say, ‘Which one is the lion?’ Joe Biden was unable to answer that … by the time you get to the end, you have to be very, very smart.”
Trump said he was then asked to remember five simple words as part of one test: “Hat, hair, logo, white, black.”
When the president successfully recited the words, he said the test’s administrators were astonished by his mental prowess.
“They go, ‘Holy shit! Nobody can do that,’” he boasted. “They say very few people can do it, but almost none can do them in order like that. But I can. You know why? Because I’m a freaking genius, that’s why.”
The president’s remarks recall an earlier claim he made during a Fox News interview while on the campaign trail in 2020. In that instance, he described being asked to repeat the words: “Person, woman, man, camera, TV.”
Trump was apparently referring to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test, designed by Dr. Ziad Nasreddine in 1996 as a 10-minute examination intended to measure the strengths of different areas of the brain that handle short-term memory, spatial awareness and executive functioning.
In an interview with MarketWatch, Nasreddine confirmed that the test is typically administered by physicians to detect signs of Alzheimer’s disease, and is “supposed to be easy.”
Public scrutiny over Trump’s physical health and mental acuity has ramped up in recent months, no doubt exacerbated by news footage of the president seemingly struggling to stay awake during White House meetings and other events.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published in February found that 45% of respondents would describe Trump as “mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges,” down from 54% in a 2023 poll conducted a little over a year before he was reelected for a second term.
In the coming days, Trump is scheduled to appear at rallies in Kansas, Kentucky and Georgia as part of his efforts to energize Republican voters ahead of the November midterms.
Whether the president’s efforts will have an impact, however, is questionable. Earlier this week, Fox News unveiled the latest edition of its power rankings, in which the traditionally MAGA-friendly network predicted ― for the first time this election cycle ― that Democrats will flip the GOP-controlled House next month.