Donald Trump's attempt this week to tamp down speculation that he is suffering a precipitous mental decline suffered a blow after he, once again, boasted about passing a simple test designed to gauge the mental acuity of the elderly or stroke victims.
The former president has long bragged that he "aced" the test first administered before he lost the 2020 election, going so far as to appear on Fox News and bragging he took it and that he did "amazing."
As the Washington Post is reporting, the former president cited being able to repeat back to a doctor the words "Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.”
At that time, in the summer of 2020, the now-former president was widely derided for being so proud of what appeared to most to be a simple task.
That, however, has not stopped him from falling back on his test results now that there are renewed questions about his mental sharpness after a series of blunders and gaffes made during his recent rally appearances where he seemed to be making the case about running against former President Barack Obama and, on Friday night, confusing GOP presidential opponent Nikki Haley with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
As the report points out, the former president brought up the test before a New Hampshire crowd this week, explaining, "I think it was 35, 30 questions. They always show you the first one, like a giraffe, a tiger, or this, or that — a whale. ‘Which one is the whale?’ Okay? And that goes on for three or four [questions] and then it gets harder and harder and harder.”
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However, as the Post is reporting, the person behind the creation of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) stated the whale in the test that Trump believes he identified is non-existent.
Speaking with Post, the Canadian neurologist Ziad Nasreddine, explained that in the three versions of the test being used, "I don’t think we have a version with a whale.”
The report adds that Nasreddine added that maybe Trump was remembering the test wrong or was using a "hypothetical" to describe it.
The report also notes that Trump's boasts about passing the test has long been a source of amusement to Republican insiders including those attending a meeting on June, 4, 2020 where Trump "suddenly asked the assembled crowd if he should challenge Biden to a cognitive test."
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After being advised to skip it, one attendee admitted afterward, "I just remember when I walked out, saying to a co-worker, ‘That was nuts.'”
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