Trumps bragging about the cognitive test. ... It is because doctors need to be on top of suspected alzheimers

[Trueblue1968]

[Liberal In Texas]

1. They want to be able to see how fast and how far he's

losing cognition. The only reason to give multiple tests.

[Trueblue1968]

4. The media is afraid to say the words alzheimers and dementia to his face

When Rump starts bragging about those tests, someone needs to speak up. If Rump wants to sue, bring it on.

DISCOVERY should be interesting. Maybe he would be impeached.

[leftieNanner]

2. Mr. Leftie and I took one

15 years ago when we signed up for long term care insurance. Not since then.

We are 73 and 75.

[Kid Berwyn]

3. There's a reason he's the only pee-rentaldunce to pass these tests.

He’s the only pee-rentaldunce to take these tests.

SNAKE

PIG

CAN OF BRONZER

[Ms. Toad]

5. It's an age-related test unrelated to a particularized suspicion of Alzheimers.

Medicare requires an assessment of cognitive abilities during the annual exam (i.e. every year for the rest of your life).

Doctors who care for geriatric patients (regardless of type of insurance) pretty much follow Medicare guidelines.

Doctors do not have to use the MOCA test to make the assessment, bit it is one tool for making the assessment. Every time, but one, my doctor has made the assessment just based on our conversations during the visit (another tool for making the assessment). He got a new assistant for this recent visit, and she actually used a modified version of the MOCA.

Trump is stupid to be bragging about the test because it doesn't mean what he thinks it means (and bragging about it just shows his ignorance) - BUT - repeated testing using MOCA just means his doctor chose that method for doing a gross assessment of his cognitive abilities. Yes, it is generically related to Alzheimer's - too many doctors were ignoring signs of dementia until long past the diagnosis time - so it was mandated by law for anyone with Medicare. And, as I said, pretty much every doctor dealing with geriatric patients just follows the Medicare rules.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. 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.