Trump says he passed cognitive test again, declares health 'very good'

Trump passed a cognitive test with a perfect score during his annual physical exam, declaring his health 'very good'

US President Donald Trump said he underwent and passed a cognitive test during his annual physical exam on Friday, affirming that his health remains in "very good shape", reported Bloomberg.

 

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Florida, Trump said, “I took a cognitive test and I don’t know what to tell you other than I got every answer right.”

 

He also clarified that the screening was similar to ones he had taken in the past, where he was asked to repeat a set of words to test his memory. “It’s a pretty well-known test. Whatever it is, I got everyone — I got it all right,” he said, adding that it was his fourth time taking the exam.

 

 

Trump also suggested that his decision to take the test again was aimed at drawing a contrast with former President Joe Biden, whose own cognitive abilities became a topic of widespread debate during the previous election cycle. “I wanted to be a little different than Biden,” Trump said.

 

Questions surrounding mental fitness dominated the political discourse during the last presidential campaign, eventually culminating in Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race amid ongoing scrutiny over his health and speculation that his team had downplayed concerns about his mental state.

 

Friday's physical was conducted at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland by Navy Captain Sean Barbabella, Trump’s personal physician. It marked Trump’s first annual physical since beginning his second term as US President — at 78, he is the oldest individual to be inaugurated into the office.

 

The US President further said the nearly five-hour-long checkup went "well" and included some routine advice from medical staff. The full report from the exam is expected to be released on Sunday. “Overall, I felt I was in very good shape. A good heart, a good soul, a very good soul,” Trump said.

 

Trump has a long history of making headlines over his medical records. During his first presidential campaign, he released a controversial letter from his doctor that described him as the “healthiest individual ever elected,” a claim the physician later admitted was dictated by Trump himself.

 

His previous exams have also drawn attention for their irregularities. In 2020, White House physician Sean Conley released a report based on six months of summarised data with no clear reason for the delay in completing the physical. Trump later claimed he had undergone a cognitive test in 2019 and famously recited the words “person, woman, man, camera, TV” in a televised interview to showcase his memory skills — a moment that went viral.