--- title: Donald Trump's Mental Health Exam Doesn't Show What He Says description: President Donald Trump bragged that he scored 30 out of 30 on a cognitive test during his physical, but it doesn't show what he says. canonical: https://time.com/5106569/donald-trump-mental-health-exam/ author: Chris Wilson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-17T23:17:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:46:29.348Z article:section: Politics og:title: What Donald Trump's Mental Health Exam Doesn't Tell Us og:description: He bragged that he "scored the highest," but it doesn't work that way og:url: https://time.com/5106569/donald-trump-mental-health-exam/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a5fc48360f4888a/6988f86597cdff73d96b3f3c/ronny-jackson.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3520 og:image:height: 1980 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Donald Trump's Mental Health Exam Doesn't Tell Us twitter:description: He bragged that he "scored the highest," but it doesn't work that way twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a5fc48360f4888a/6988f86597cdff73d96b3f3c/ronny-jackson.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Donald Trump's Mental Health Exam Doesn't Tell Us > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=8c2e1c36-368a-4190-b321-2e63b1c3e6e6&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Donald Trump Is in Good Physical and Mental Health, White House Doctor Says [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump Is in Good Physical and Mental Health, White House Doctor Says](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QGu4aIld.m3u8) (2:09)  _Published 2018-01-16. Donald Trump Is in Good Physical and Mental Health, White House Doctor Says_  by [Chris Wilson](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson Jan 17, 2018 11:17 PM UTC Donald Trump Is in Good Physical and Mental Health, White House Doctor Says  by [Chris Wilson](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson Jan 17, 2018 11:17 PM UTC The White House physician reported Tuesday that [President Trump is in “excellent” overall health](http://time.com/5104183/donald-trump-health-ronny-jackson/?xid=homepage) based on a four-hour examination. At Trump’s request, said Dr. Ronny Jackson, this included a common test of cognitive ability on which the President reportedly scored a perfect 30 out of 30. Trump, who has [famously bragged about his intelligence on Twitter](http://time.com/5091242/trump-michael-wolff/), wasted no time in brandishing his score. In an [interview with Reuters Wednesday](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-exclusive/exclusive-trump-says-russia-helping-north-korea-skirt-sanctions-pyongyang-getting-close-on-missile-idUSKBN1F62KO?utm%5Fsource=twitter&utm%5Fmedium=Social), he blamed his three most recent predecessors for their failure regarding North Korea, and said, “I guess they all realized they were going to have to leave it to a president that scored the highest on tests.” The 15-minute exam that Jackson administered is called the [Montreal Cognitive Assessment](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2005.53221.x/full), or MoCA, and is widely used to test for early signs of diseases like Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. None of the questions are difficult for someone who does not suffer from cognitive impairment, but “the test is very sensitive to early stages of these conditions,” says Dr. Ziad Nasreddine, who [developed the assessment in 1996](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/01/17/trumps-cognitive-test-was-created-by-a-lebanese-immigrant-to-canada/?utm%5Fterm=.1aba2dfa5de2). “It’s unlikely that \[Trump\] has dementia or Alzheimer’s.” Unlikely, but not impossible, says [Dr. Paul J. Moberg](https://www.med.upenn.edu/bbl/staff-moberg.html), the clinical director of neuropsychology service at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school. “Just because a person gets a 30 out of 30 doesn’t mean you wouldn’t pick up even very significant impairments in further testing,” he said. “A more comprehensive neurological exam would be required to really tease that out.” In some cases, he said, families might bring in a patient because he or she is demonstrating clear signs of dementia, such as memory loss or confusion, and the patient will ace the MoCA — only to be confirmed as having a serious deficit when given a comprehensive test that can take anywhere from three hours to a day. “The MoCA is a wonderful cognitive screening test. But that’s what it is: a screening test,” says Moberg’s colleague David R. Roalf, a research assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania Department of Psychiatry. “It doesn’t necessarily speak to competency, per se.” Moberg agreed: “A screening measure is not enough to assess competency.” Why Trump requested the test is unclear, though he is undoubtedly aware that many of his critics have questioned whether he is mentally competent to be commander-in-chief. The [most rigorous armchair psychiatry](https://www.statnews.com/2017/05/23/donald-trump-speaking-style-interviews/) came from a publication that collected many hours of footage of interviews Trump has given since the 1980s and then consulted a battery of experts, some of whom suggested changes in his speech patterns strongly suggest cognitive decline. Other long-range diagnoses include narcissistic personality disorder, though at least one expert has [both concurred with that assessment and suggested](http://time.com/4928984/donald-trump-mental-illness/) it does not impair Trump’s competency. The MoCA assigns 11 tasks that test different cognitive skills. The first question, for example, poses to the examinee: “Please draw a line, going from a number to a letter in ascending order,” using the following image:  A few questions later, the test-taker is asked to name three animals:  (“Dromedary,” which is [specifically a one-hump camel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromedary), is an acceptable answer to the third picture.) Jackson himself clarified in his [briefing with reporters on the President’s health](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-sarah-sanders-and-dr-ronny-jackson-01162018/) that the exam is only “a screening assessment for cognitive impairment,” not a detailed survey of any sort. In other words, Trump cannot wave his cognitive report card and silence all skeptics, but neither should those skeptics ignore the results of his screening — if they should be speculating on his mental health at all, [which the American Psychiatric Association discourages its members from doing](https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/apa-blog/2017/03/apa-remains-committed-to-supporting-goldwater-rule). Only a more thorough exam would shed definitive light on the President’s cognitive prowess. It appears unlikely. Jackson said the President’s score “does rule out the need to do any other cognitive testing.” This could still happen if Trump requested it, but it not standard practice to assess a President’s mental health during his annual physical. **Note:** Though easy to find online, the MoCA is copyrighted by its developer, who requests that only excerpts be reprinted so that it won’t become too commonly recognizable when used. TIME is using the above screenshots with permission. ## Transcript [00:00] The president's overall health is excellent. His cardiac [00:02] performance during his physical exam was very good. [00:05] He continues to enjoy the significant long- term cardiac [00:08] and overall health benefits that come from a lifetime of [00:11] abstinence from tobacco and alcohol. We discussed [00:14] diet, exercise, and weight loss. He would benefit from [00:17] a diet that is lower in fat and carbohydrates and from [00:19] a routine excercise regimen. It for any type of cognitive [00:22] issues, Alzheimer's and all those other things and so [00:27] the fact that the president got 30 out of 30 on that [00:29] exam I think there's no indication whatsoever that he [00:32] has any cognitive issues. There was an incident [00:34] recently where the president apepared to Slur his [00:36] words while giving an address. Did you look into what [00:39] the cause of that might have been at all? I did. We [00:42] talked about that. And actually, one of my EMT [00:46] consultants was involved in that. We evaluated him. We [00:50] checked everything out. And everything was normal. [00:52] We even went so far as to do an ultra sound of his [00:54] proatile glands and a few other things. And there was [00:57] absolutely no clinical findings that would suggest I think [01:01] the reason for that was quite honestly, me being up [01:02] here right now I think I need a drink of water. I [01:07] think that I had given the President some medication. [01:10] Specifically some Sudafed on the days previous. I think [01:13] that I had inadvertently kind of dried up his secretions [01:16] a little bit more than I. I intended to and I think that to [01:18] our Deputy Secretary. What is this daily exercise for [01:19] [ UNKNOWN ] [01:23] So I would say [ UNKNOWN ] on a day- to- day basis [01:26] he doesn't have a dedicated, defined exercise [01:29] program and that That's what I'm working on, the [01:34] good part is that we can build on that pretty easily. [01:38] One of the things is, I'm getting nutrition specialist to [01:40] come up here and meet with the chefs that we have [01:42] here and their gonna go over the preparation of the [01:44] president's food. Just to make sure that we're cutting [01:47] the calories and the fats and the carbohydrates as [01:51] much as we possibly can, we're still making a good [01:53] meals for him With regards to the exercise, that's [01:56] something that myself, and potentially Mrs. Trump will [02:00] work with him upstairs. There's a gentlemen upstairs, [02:03] and we'll get that set up to his specifications, and we'll [02:07] see how that goes. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5106569/donald-trump-mental-health-exam/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5106569/donald-trump-mental-health-exam/"},"headline":"What Donald Trump's Mental Health Exam Doesn't Tell Us","datePublished":"2018-01-17T23:17:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T08:46:29.348Z","description":"He bragged that he \"scored the highest\"","url":"https://time.com/5106569/donald-trump-mental-health-exam/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a5fc48360f4888a/6988f86597cdff73d96b3f3c/ronny-jackson.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chris Wilson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a5fc48360f4888a/6988f86597cdff73d96b3f3c/ronny-jackson.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP","caption":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP","creditText":"Nicholas Kamm—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5106569/donald-trump-mental-health-exam/","name":"What Donald Trump's Mental Health Exam Doesn't Tell Us"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Donald Trump Is in Good Physical and Mental Health, White House Doctor Says","description":"Donald Trump Is in Good Physical and Mental Health, White House Doctor Says","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QGu4aIld/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-01-16T22:39:14.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QGu4aIld.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5106569/donald-trump-mental-health-exam/","duration":"PT2M9S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5106569/donald-trump-mental-health-exam/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```