Trump, 79, Flexes Cognitive Skills With Bonkers Bear Brag

[Zorro]

The president boasted about his knack for correctly identifying animals.

President Donald Trump rambled about his ability to correctly identify animals as he touted his mental acuity on Friday, while suggesting his own supporters would not pass such a test.

The president, 79, has repeatedly bragged about having taken three cognitive tests, which he claims he aced. But during his rant at The Villages, Florida—the world’s largest retirement community—Trump shared a fresh example of what his test included.

“You know, the first question is very easy. It’s a lion, a giraffe, a bear, and a shark. They say, ‘Which one is the bear?’” Trump said. “And everybody says ‘Oooooh.’ Thirty questions. Everyone says, very standard. It’s a very standard test, but very tough around those last 10 questions.”

Trump was supposed to be promoting how his administration has helped improve the lives of seniors, but the president strayed far from his prepared script almost immediately after taking the stage.

He launched into a several-minute rant about his cognitive ability after he went on the attack against California Governor Gavin Newsom.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-79-flexes-cognitive-skills-with-bonkers-bear-brag/

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. 86 47

For Love of Country

[calimary]

11. Indeed.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Trmp was once described as a poor man's idea of what a rich man looks like and a stupid man's idea of what a smart man

looks like ...

I'm not so sure even the stupid man would hold that opinion anymore.

Trmp can't ever prove he's even average in ability, so he has to put everyone else down to feel superior. But only people as stupid as he is can be fooled by that behavior.

[dweller]

3. My 3 yr old grandson

Can correctly identify and even pronounce ( in 3 yr old grammar ) 30+ dinosaurs . 🦕

It’s not the flex Pisswig thinks it is . . .

smh



✌🏻

[pat_k]

4. Un f-ing believable. It's pretty clear he's talking about the MoCA. It's 30 pts (not 30 questions)...

Last edited Sat May 2, 2026, 01:35 AM - Edit history (3)

...and he doesn't even report the animals right.

For sure no sharks.

See below for Gemini's explanation of possible animal variations. (Take with whatever grains of salt you apply to all AI).

And those difficult "last five questions"?

They are NOT five questions. It's one question that is scored up to 5 points for delayed recall. That is, remembering some or all of five words/objects that are conveyed earlier in the test.

"Cognitive Test" certainly does not mean what he thinks it means (BTW, Princess Bride is on my all time favorite list). As I think we all know, it is a screening test for dementia. It is not, as he obviously thinks, an intelligence test.

According to AI (Gemini)

No standard version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) includes a lion, giraffe, bear, and shark in a single test.

The standard naming section in the most common versions of the MoCA (such as Versions 7.1, 8.1, and 8.2) uses the following three animals: Lion Rhinoceros Camel

Animal Variations in Other Versions:

While the "Lion, Rhino, Camel" set is the standard, some alternate versions or older, less-common versions have featured different animals to prevent practice effects. For instance, one version has been known to use a giraffe, bear, and hippopotamus.

Shark: A shark is not typically found on standard MoCA tests.

Elephant: Some variations, notably one shown in a 2020 news report, have included an elephant instead of a rhino.

Here is one of the versions of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) commonly used:
https://www.dementiaresearch.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/06_MoCA_Form.pdf

[LoisB]

5. All I got was "draw 3:40 on a clock and banana, cat, table". I "aced" it.

[Skittles]

12. yeah I had to draw a clock

I laughed and told my doc, pretty soon that "test" will be obsolete

[LoisB]

14. It will. Reminds me of a time long ago when I did show and tell for my

granddaughters' fifth grade class and showed them a '45 record. The kids thought it was a "big CD". Now, I would get "what's a CD?'.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

18. Salvador Dali would have failed that test, bigly

[stage left]

6. 8647

for the love of God.

[RainCaster]

7. This is the stupidest man on earth

To many, he is their savior because he preaches a gospel of hate. To them, it doesn't matter how stupid or ignorant he is.

[JoseBalow]

8. What a colossal dipshit

The president of the United States is one of the dumbest fuckers on the planet.

[Skittles]

13. and what is truly sad

is he seems completely unaware how fucking clueless he sounds

[pat_k]

15. He may not have a clue, but plenty of others do!!

What he is is crystal clear to people who have a bit of self-awareness and a full dose of compassion.

British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read
March 8, 2019 by THE HOBBLEDEHOY
https://thehobbledehoy.com/tag/nate-white/

...he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.

... his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.

After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss.

He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.

God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.
...
He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.

In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?

[Rhiannon12866]

9. I got stuck with one of those tests the last time I went to the doctor

And the animals I had to name were so familiar that a pre-schooler would know them.

[Aussie105]

10. When you need to boast you can identify some common animals . . .

the boat that should have taken you to the exclusive 'Lunatics Only' island departed long ago.

'Believe me bigly, telling a shark from a giraffe is hard work, but I aced it!
Grown men had tears in their eyes and called me Sir!'

[Orrex]

17. It's tricky because the shark might be packing electric boat batteries, too.

[IronLionZion]

19. Douchebag is bragging that he's the only president to take cognitive tests

[oneLarge-Monkie]

20. Just Read a ForeignAffairs Article on Failure of the Iran War which echoed this

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/how-war-saved-iranian-regime

[LetMyPeopleVote]

21. MaddowBlog-Trump's incessant talk about cognitive tests isn't reassuring people about his mental fitness

The percentage of Americans who believe that Trump is “mentally sharp” has dropped below 50%. He’s apparently feeling rather defensive on the issue.

The percentage of Americans who believe that Trump is “mentally sharp” has dropped well below 50%.

He’s apparently responding with manic rhetoric about cognitive tests.

I have a hunch that won’t turn things around for him.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-05-04T20:02:33.737Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-incessant-talk-about-cognitive-tests-isnt-reassuring-people-about-his-mental-fitness

If his public remarks are any indication, few topics are of greater interest to Donald Trump than cognitive tests. The president has long struggled to understand the point of these tests, but that hasn’t stopped him from his obsessive boasts about being able to pass exams used to identify dementia, mental deterioration and neurodegenerative diseases.

On Friday, for example, Trump spoke to a supportive crowd in Florida, where he went on an extended riff, claiming that he’s the only president to have taken a cognitive test, pretending it’s impressive that he’s taken three and insisting that Barack Obama would fail such a test......

I am going to resist the temptation to comment on that quote and will instead note that around the same time, the president suggested some of his own supporters on hand for the event would struggle to answer the questions on the exams he’s taken repeatedly for reasons the White House hasn’t explained.

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. 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.

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2026-05-01T20:50:37.879Z

If it seemed that Trump was feeling a bit defensive on the issue, it’s easy to understand why. It was just a few weeks ago when The New York Times published a striking report with an unsubtle headline: “Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate.” The same article highlighted a lawyer who used to work with Trump who described the president as “a man who is clearly insane.”

It also noted a recent comment from Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary who worked for Trump in his first term. Grisham wrote online a week earlier that her former boss is “clearly not well.”....

But just as important is the degree to which Trump’s fixation on the subject doesn’t seem to be persuading anyone. As recently as November 2024, when he won a second term, a Pew Research Center poll found that 55% of Americans considered the Republican to be “mentally sharp.” That number has now dropped to 44%, with slides among Democrats, independents and even GOP voters.

If the president wants to reassure the public he’s mentally fit to serve, he’ll have to try something other than obsessing over his alleged successes on dementia tests.