Why Does President Donald Trump Take So Many Cognitive Tests?

People want to know why President Donald Trump takes so many cognitive exams after he bragged that he "ACED" three of them recently on Truth Social. Trump posted a lengthy message on Dec. 9, 2025, and he noted that a The New York Times article claiming he was "slowing up" was "seditious, perhaps even treasonous."

The president also claimed, "There has never been a President that has worked as hard as [him]." So, why does he need to take so many cognitive exams?

Donald Trump reportedly takes so many cognitive tests because of his age, which is 79. He was the oldest president to be inaugurated as President of the United States in January, 2025, when he was 78. According to the White House, Trump had a physical examination in April, which included a neurological examination that found "no abnormalities in his mental status."

"A comprehensive neurological examination revealed no abnormalities in his mental status, cranial nerves, motor and sensory function, reflexes, gait, and balance," the report claimed. "Cognitive function, assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), was normal with a score of 30 out of 30."

However, a clinical psychologist and former professor at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. John Gartner, told The Daily Beast that the frequency of the cognitive exams suggests that doctors are monitoring a progressive decline, not checking for one.

'If you're giving it to him three times, that means you're not assessing dementia," he said. "That means you're monitoring dementia."

He added that the repetition of the exams aligns with professionals checking again to monitor "how bad he's doing now."

'We have to judge people against their own baseline," he added. "If somebody doubles their rate of speed, that's a mental status change of some kind. This 'rate of speed' refers to the increasing frequency of verbal slips and the 'semantic density' of his speech, which some specialists argue has thinned over the last decade."

Trump's rants on Truth Social deny that he has cognitive issues and claim that he received "PERFECT marks."

"I go out of my way to do long, thorough, and very boring Medical Examinations at the Great Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, seen and supervised by top doctors, all of whom have given me PERFECT Marks," he wrote in part. "Some have even said they have never seen such Strong Results. I do these Tests because I owe it to our Country."

He added that very few people have been able to pass the exams as he had.

"In addition to the Medical, I have done something that no other President has done," he claimed. "On three separate occasions, the last one being recently, by taking what is known as a Cognitive Examination, something which few people would be able to do very well, including those working at The New York Times, and I ACED all three of them in front of large numbers of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know."

Trump went on to brag and said that he will know when he is "slowing up." He also called the media "Enemies of the People."

"I will know when I am 'slowing up,' but it’s not now! ... I actually believe it’s seditious, perhaps even treasonous, for The New York Times, and others, to consistently do FAKE reports in order to libel and demean 'THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.' They are true Enemies of the People, and we should do something about it."