During a rally in New Hampshire, former President Donald Trump fondly recounted the experience of acing a cognitive exam. Trump shared the story with his audience in Portsmouth, emphasizing that despite being warned about the difficulty of the exam, he decided to take it to prove a point.
The former president explained, “I said, ‘I gotta take it, ’cause I gotta shut it up,’ and I took it, and I aced it.” The crowd responded with applause, and Trump proceeded to make light of the initial questions, which he described as featuring images of a giraffe, a tiger, and a whale.
Trump humorously recounted the progression of the exam, highlighting the increasing difficulty of questions. He mentioned that after the initial easy ones, the exam became more challenging, involving complex arithmetic problems. He concluded by noting the inclusion of tough questions like “multiply 3,293 times four, divide by three.”
The context of Trump’s recounting of his cognitive exam comes amid ongoing discussions about the mental competency of politicians, particularly those over the age of 75. One of Trump’s rivals for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, has advocated for mental competency tests for politicians in this age bracket. Notably, Trump is 77 years old.
Haley has recently tried to make Trump’s age and cognitive function an issue, drawing parallels between Trump and President Joe Biden, both of whom she referred to as being “about 80 years old.” As the conversation around the mental fitness of political leaders continues, Trump used his rally platform to highlight his past success in a cognitive exam.
