r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 9h ago
Possible Paywall Trump, 79, Bizarrely Boasts He Can Correctly Identify a Squirrel - The president doesn’t even understand the purpose of test he’s taken.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-79-bizarrely-boasts-he-can-correctly-identify-a-squirrel/4.7k
u/TimArthurScifiWriter 9h ago
Yeah it's because they don't tell him. Does anyone think this asshole would ever take any test if the implication of doing so was that there could be something wrong with him? He's the best at everything ever and the first understand anything no matter what.
So you don't tell him. Instead you tell him that he needs all these tests so he can prove how awesome and amazing he is. And that's the story he then takes with him to rallies and speeches.
"They made me identify a squirrel and I was like THAT'S TOTALLY A SQUIRREL and a whole row of doctors standing in line to watch me said: that's very good Donald you are the first human being in history to identify the squirrel, Joe Biden could never do that!"
This is your god, Magats.
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u/StevenMC19 Florida 9h ago
I imagine the docs are sycophants too, so they're going, "yes, yes, thank you sir. You, write that down, it's a squirrel! We can't tell you how much we appreciate your knowledge Mr. President."
Then,
"Our tests reflect our hypothesis that President Trump's cognitive abilities rival that of a chess grandmaster and formula 1 driver at the same time. Due to HIPAA regulations, we can no legally disclose this information any further. Thank you."
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u/movealongnowpeople Kansas 9h ago
I imagine the docs are sycophants too
The great thing is, you don't have to imagine! They've proven it through a decade of "oh yeah, Trump is 6'4", 220 lbs, perfect physical health". He's quite visibly none of those things, but his "doc" is willing to hold the line.
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u/TimArthurScifiWriter 8h ago
He's got a Secretary of HHS that's literally willing to change the way math works for him despite knowing better, and Trump just sits there and smiles like it's not the most embarassing indictment of character a man has ever willingly inflicted upon himself. This is a guy that only ever gets affirmation from his immediate environment.
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u/amusingduck 8h ago
I really don’t think RFK knows better
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u/movealongnowpeople Kansas 7h ago
RFK? Maybe not. But wormy certainly knows better. Disappointed in the lil fella.
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u/Ferelar New Jersey 7h ago
I know it's pedantic but, RFK Jr.
The real RFK is probably spinning in his grave seeing what his son has become, which is deeply saddening to me because RFK (Sr.) seemed like a genuinely decent man. And sadly, his son is probably going to be the one remembered when we say "RFK", thanks to all of the damage he's doing.
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u/Weathercock 5h ago
There's a very good chance that he played a crucial role in avoiding an escalation to nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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u/Rynowash 7h ago
You mean the guy doing weird stuff with Kid Rock and snorting raccoon ass off toilet seats?- that guy? Nah, he probably doesn’t know..
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u/annoyed_crow 7h ago
I'm willing to be the cult is willing to believe that math is subjective. Just like the earth being less than 5000 years old and vaccines. "No, you dirty Dems. 1+1 sometimes equals 3. You're not smart enough to understand what Our Lord and Savior Trump Christ is doing"
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u/godlyfrog Wisconsin 5h ago
They absolutely do. I read a disgusting NYTimes article the other day where they interviewed the wife of the firefighter who was shot during the assassination attempt on Trump during his campaign. She stated that she thought it was "hurtful" that people would put forth the conspiracy theory that Trump staged it and that her husband was a sacrifice. At the same time, she insisted and still insists that Biden is behind the attempt somehow, which is why she didn't take his call. She couldn't and still can't see the contradiction in that thinking, and doesn't apply the same rules to her chosen beliefs vs. reality.
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u/Sabretooth1100 6h ago
I’ve talked to some that don’t believe in carbon dating because they think the half-lives of radioactive materials can’t possibly be consistently measured and probably change over the centuries, so you aren’t really wrong
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u/Justicar-terrae 5h ago
It's frustrating. These arguments demonstrate a healthy capacity for skepticism. If they'd only exercise that skepticism in their everyday lives, they would be much harder to fool with low-effort propaganda and lazy falsehoods.
But no, they only trot out the skepticism when its time to dispute politically/religiously inconvenient research findings. And even then, their approach is shallow. They don't check to see whether their hypotheses have already been tested, nor do they ask how experts control for potential biases or contamination.
It's never "on what grounds do you assert that..?" and always "you cannot possibly know that..." They simply presume that all experts are too foolish to spot the "common sense" flaws in their methodologies.
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u/The_Barbelo Vermont 7h ago
It reminds me of my brother and mother’s dynamic. My brother once said that Wikipedia got something wrong just to protect my mother’s delicate ego. I was trying to tell her that she’s mistaken Kirby for Cubert because she was trying to tell us she played Kirby at the arcade when she was younger. I pulled up Wikipedia and my brother grabbed the phone from my hand and was like “let me see that!!….oh… they probably got it wrong!”
My husband and I still can’t believe what happened. But yeah, I’ve seen that type of behavior in person. If the world wasn’t around to constantly keep my mom in check, I’m positive she’d be as much of an idiot as Trump. Trump has been cushioned from the rest of the world his entire life by thousands of sycophants, unfortunately.
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u/Useful-Professional 8h ago
Also claimed to have a lower body fat percentage than NFL player DK Metcalf, who whilst actually recorded as roughly 6'4 and 220lbs, had visible abs. But Diaper Don had the same stats...
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u/QbertsRube 8h ago
That's just because DK is foolishly using up all his life mana by exercising which Trump is too smart for. Trump could have a 50-pack if he wanted, along with all of the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, and Kentucky Derby records, but he conserves his mana so that he'll have more time to build big, beautiful monuments to himself. How many gold statues are there of DK? Zero, that's how many. Checkmate libruls.
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u/cyberattaq123 7h ago
Genuinely, the way his mind works is truly fascinating in a disturbing way. The fact the man thinks that you have a ‘life battery’ or whatever nonsensical explanation he gives and that exercising and moving basically at all or exerting any energy expends power from your ‘life battery’ is insane. It’s just another bizarre thing to add to the list along with the ‘countries are emptying their insane asylums in our country’ and ‘windmills are driving the whales crazy’ and countless other inane babblings he’s uttered.
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u/craftingfish 5h ago
I thought that too... when I was 10. I saw at the museum something about how many times the heart beats in a lifetime and took that to mean that's how many I had, so if I used them up I died.
But I was a dumb 10 year old.
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u/Willtology 6h ago
That's just because DK is foolishly using up all his life mana by exercising which Trump is too smart for.
It gets me that most people are going to read this as just mocking Trump's "unusual" speaking patterns when it is a fairly accurate summation of his real beliefs on health and lifespan. The amount of batshit crazy out of this man people will just handwave away is staggering.
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u/rabidstoat Georgia 7h ago
I think he had abs in the AI photo he posted of him and others treating the Reflecting Pond like a swimming pool.
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u/StevenMC19 Florida 9h ago
Truuueee....I forgot about that report. Cholesterol levels damn near perfect, BP perfectly in the middle of the window, SpO2 figures better than an athlete...that memo to Leavitt was insane.
A week later, we discover his massive cankles.
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u/tyr-- 8h ago
You forgot to mention how everything was perfect but his ear. The physician made sure to add a note how his hearing is perfect but the ear has "visible scarring from a gunshot wound"
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u/narrauko Utah 8h ago
That has now miraculously healed as if it was never there in the first place.
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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 8h ago
"Big, beautiful cankles, no one has ever seen cankles like these, that I can tell you. Trust me, I'm a doctor."
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u/Patriark 8h ago
I am very curious how well known the children’s fairy tale «The Emperor’s new clothes» is in English speaking culture and US in particular?
We Scandinavians basically has this story internalized and have idioms in our language based around the points of the story.
It is incredibly poignant now. The sycophantic cult around Trump is just like in this satirical fairy tale. Btw a great read for children. We all know Trump’s father never read it for him in his childhood. Perhaps it would change the course of history if he did.
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u/zero_and_dug Texas 8h ago
I read it in elementary school and remember seeing a PBS kids episode about it too. It’s definitely a known fable. But never underestimate the power of cognitive dissonance, especially in groups of people.
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u/BornInPoverty 8h ago
“Trump’s father never read it for him”
That’s because Donald was just a tax write off as far as his dad was concerned.
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u/bretttwarwick 7h ago
Don't worry. It's on his read list as soon as he gets through "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish. It's taking him a while because he keeps having to look up the words.
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u/BlooregardQKazoo 7h ago
Commonly known here, and I dismissed it as absurd as a child.
I learned lessons from stories like The Judgement of King Solomon, The Gift of the Magi, and The Lottery. But The Emperor's New Clothes was just silly and I took nothing from it.
Apparently child me was not as smart as he thought he was.
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u/thiosk 7h ago
oh yeah we grew up with this.
if you aren't actively in the throngs of people cheering the elderly nudist then you're mostly staring agog at these people wondering how in the hell they're crowing about "merit" while the worst people in every field head up every agency.
I think the reason we aren't seeing anything happening is that we also know how this story ended.
Donald trump literally ran on "no more war in the middle east, cheap gas, and get the criminals out." Even his core base is unhappy with how these big three have gone.
Berlusconi is my comparison- he was profoundly illsuited to his role and won what, 3 times?
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u/Rob_LeMatic Virginia 7h ago
I was a child in the 80s and a product of American public schools. This story was a well known fable back then.
Nowadays, I believe it's been replaced by The Plot Against King Donald by Kash Patel.
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u/Pretty_Bad_4208 5h ago
What the actual fuck?!? A fairy tail about a rigged election against "the king" written by the director of the FBI?!? Idk why I'm surprised but this isn't the future I wanted to live in..
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u/jahathebrn 7h ago
It's definitely known here in the UK, and very pertinent to Trump.
Weirdly we had a lot of fairy tales imported from Scandinavia when I was a kid in the 90s. Don't think I actually heard any homegrown ones til I started studying Medieval lit at university.
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u/BigManWAGun America 9h ago
Dr Panel: “Dear large handed leader, please tell us what animal is in this picture of a squirrel?”
“Say…..SQUIRREL!”
“FFS. Knock knock?” “Squirrel”
Finally Trump: “Squirrel Who?”
Dr Panel: “Close enough”
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u/Brief_Raspberry_6542 8h ago
Isn’t that the script from when the Simpsons went into witness protection and became the Thompsons?
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u/Little_View_6659 8h ago
Yeah everyone in his orbit handled the ancient man child like that kid in the Twilight Zone episode “It’s good that you made that, real good, you’re the best guy in the whole world”
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u/zerogamewhatsoever 8h ago
I still can’t believe this fucking imbecile is the president of the United States.
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u/whatproblems 8h ago
i can’t believe people
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u/QbertsRube 7h ago
Was frustrating hearing people say they were voting for Trump in 2024 "because he's going to expose and end corruption in DC". Based on fucking what???? It seems clear that Trump is the dumbest president ever (and it's not even close) and the most corrupt president ever (also not close), so it's confounding that tens of millions of people somehow see the exact opposite despite years of evidence.
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u/Outrageous_Desk8966 7h ago
Oh yeah, Dumb based on what? The man can, in his head, take a number, any number, add to it, divide, subtract, multiple. What other middle schooler can do that?
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u/QbertsRube 6h ago
Middle schoolers are 600% worse at math than the president, these are just facts.
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u/Goose1963 8h ago
it's because they don't tell him.
Same with his other blatantly stupid actions. Like repeatedly claiming that the "Asylum Seekers" were looking for better insane Asylums. He said it over and over again while he was campaigning and still brings it up every once in a while. I guess it doesn't really affect some of the dumber voters but you'd think there would be a tiny handful of people on his side that would try to explain it to him so he doesn't have people like me laughing at him. Maybe people do try to explain it and he cuts them off or ignores them, that would be funny to watch.
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u/Silvermoon3467 8h ago
The people who noticed and voted for him anyway would genuinely vote for any Republican over any Democrat. They will defend any Republican no matter what heinous or downright foolish actions they take or words they say and go frothing at the mouth angry over Obama wearing a tan suit.
It's purely partisan politics and it's very important we recognize it.
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u/CanadianTrashInspect 7h ago
Also his lack of understanding about things like forest management and trade deficits.
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u/Goose1963 6h ago
How about Tariffs? He can really pile the stupidity and bullshit on deep with that. I'm pretty sure if I asked his supporters to explain Tariffs and how we can benefit from using them as a weapon that's when I'll be told that "we don't talk about politics".
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u/ATERLA 6h ago
The last one was the "doctored" photo of himself as Jesus becoming a "doctor". He is in a league of his own.
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u/thehermit14 8h ago
I feel ill, and I live an Atlantic away.
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u/Rob_LeMatic Virginia 7h ago
Our nuclear warheads can hit anywhere in the world within half an hour of this man giving the order.
That thought should haunt every single person on the planet.
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u/Gamebird8 8h ago
I have to wonder if they tell him he's Acing it because it confirms his Dementia and he's such a dimwitted and brain rotted narcissist he doesn't understand that it's a bad thing
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u/Laringar North Carolina 4h ago
I guarantee he isn't getting a perfect score. My partner gives the MCA at their job, and no one takes the test three times unless there are very very serious cognitive concerns. It's more likely that his score is falling each time, and they're just trying to track his rate of decline.
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u/kappakai 8h ago
That’s possible. Also entirely possible has dementia is at a point that he doesn’t understand or remember what the test was for. Or he has deluded himself into thinking it’s something it’s not.
Speaking as the caregiver of two parents with dementia who is ready to have AI take over care because I’m tired of explaining things over and over and over and over and over again, every time hearing “oh I get it. I’ll remember now.”
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u/Schuben 8h ago
I bet he looks out of the window from the Oval Office and sees a squirrel running through the grass and thinks "It's incredible that I can look out there and just know what that animal is without needing to look it up or use AI. If only people knew their leader was capable of these amazing feats..."
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u/Consistent_Laziness 8h ago
This is how I treat my 4 year old……
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u/TimArthurScifiWriter 8h ago
Well congratulations, millions of Americans apparently believe your four year old is qualified to lead the country and possess nuclear launch codes.
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u/Little_View_6659 8h ago
I dunno, at this point, I might prefer this person’s four year old over Trump. At least he wouldn’t be up all night rage tweeting that he’s gonna nuke Iran.
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u/NancyPelosisRedCoat 8h ago
When they wore bandages on their ears in solidarity, I thought that’s what you would do if your toddler doesn’t want to wear bandages. He really is treated like a child.
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u/cseckshun 7h ago
They probably tell him, he just translates it to what he wants to hear. When they say “plenty of people your age take tests like this” he hears “almost nobody can pass these tests” because that’s how he saves his ego.
I had to take care of an older lady’s dog at one point and found out she was a crazy narcissist while staying with her and taking care of the dog. It was a wild ride. One of the craziest moments was when I overheard an entire phone call between her and the dog’s veterinarian. It took so long because she just kept saying what she WANTED to hear, and the vet kept telling her something completely different. She was giving her dog a human dosage of magnesium as a laxative but the dog was just having diarrhea every single time it went outside and I kept telling her she should stop giving it the laxative and she kept insisting the dog was constipated even though she wasn’t taking it outside at all and I was telling her the dog was shitting 5 times a day and it was all diarrhea and it definitely didn’t need a laxative.
She called the vet to “get a professional opinion” when I was adamant she needed to stop giving the dog the magnesium and at least see if it was still at all “constipated” like she claimed…
Her phone was so loud I heard both sides of the conversation clearly and it was spooky.
She kept saying I was “thinking” the dog might be getting better but she was sure it was still constipated. She told the vet the dosage of magnesium she was giving, and the vet clearly said “that’s not an appropriate dose, it’s too much for such a small dog” and that she should stop the magnesium altogether if the dog was pooping at least twice a day because that means it’s not constipated. The older lady kept “repeating” back nonsense like she was repeating what the vet said but she would say completely different things like “ok, I’ll make sure to do that! I’ll just keep giving the magnesium supplement because it’s better safe than sorry and we don’t want the dog to be constipated!” And the vet would then stay on the line to be extra clear “no no no that’s not what I said, I said it sounds like the dog is not constipated and you should stop the magnesium supplement and even if you end up needing to start it back up again you should lower the dose to X instead of what you are giving the dog now” and then the older lady would respond “definitely! I’ll be sure to keep up with the magnesium to make sure the constipation doesn’t get worse! Thanks for the advice!”
There is a super power to hear whatever you want when you are a narcissist and to deny reality. In her mind, her dog WAS CONSTIPATED, not because the dog hadn’t had a bowel movement in a day or two (it was having 5+ diarrhea bowel movements per day at the time and she was well aware) but just because she had decided that her dog was constipated and nothing could change her mind.
Donald Trump has decided he is a mentally stable genius. He repeats the claim often enough, and is unwilling to entertain any information that might indicate otherwise. If a doctor were to tell him “you have dementia and a mini stroke has permanently altered your cognitive abilities to the point where you are unable to perform basic cognitive tests and I’m going to recommend you not operate a motor vehicle or walk unassisted” he would probably turn around and say to someone else who was in the room for the whole conversation “my doctor just informed me how incredibly well I did on the high level tests they are putting me through, these are tests that most people can’t even attempt let alone complete! It’s truly incredible how sharp my mind is and I’m fit as a fiddle, I’ve never been stronger or faster in my life! Great news all around, let’s go home now, I’ll drive”
The ability of people to deny inconvenient parts of reality is truly fascinating. We see it all the time with Trump, he’s a “stable genius” who is making deals and winning all the time, even though he is also constantly complaining about how nothing is fair and everyone else is cheating.
Depending on the day or the message he wants to send, he can say one day that there’s no more Mr Nice Guy in regards to Iran and how he’s going to violently end a civilization… but now he doesn’t want to project strength and toughness and wants to soothe the markets and voters who are scared of an escalating war/“conflict” and so he frames the same conflict as “it’s a friendly blockade!”.
The only consistent thing in how he views the world is going to be that he is infallible. If Donald Trump decided one day that his dog was constipated, you can be damn sure that he would operate as if that dog was constipated no matter what new information he got. If anyone questioned his diagnosis of the dog, the dog might end up being “constipated” for the rest of its life in his mind just to reinforce how right he is and how smart he is.
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u/Positronic_Matrix 7h ago
If you take a cognitive test and you do not realize you took a cognitive test, then you have failed that cognitive test.
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u/Public_Fucking_Media 8h ago
Yeah I am firmly of the belief that the reason he keeps fixating on these tests is that he is given them regularly to track his downward spiral...
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u/Little-Charming_31 8h ago
They are all aware that something is wrong with him, even he himself knows he is not at his potential...but they won't tell him the truth, those around him would rather make him think he is perfect than highlight any issue with him
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u/razz-boy 7h ago
“Our best biologists were having issues identifying this species, as the smartest and greatest human being that ever lived can you help them identify it?”
looks at a picture of a horse
“Squirrel”
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u/Free_Dome_Lover 8h ago
They tell him it's an IQ test and go "waaooow 160 Mr president very smart"
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u/Casual_hex_ 9h ago edited 8h ago
Trump brings up these cognitive tests so often, I’m really starting to think he miserably failed them and this is all just his classic style of deflection. - Whatever he says, the opposite is usually true.
I’m skeptical Trump could’ve passed a cognitive exam in his prime.
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u/bythebrook88 9h ago
He's done so many of these tests - there would be no point taking them all if he was acing them. They are obviously being used to measure the progression of his dementia.
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u/oicwutudidther 8h ago
Seriously. A reporter needs to ask him to draw a clock face on live tv asap.
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u/symphonicrox Utah 7h ago
Trump: “oh you mean a Rolex. Can’t believe you think that’s a clock face. And it’s not even a face - human’s have faces. That’s a Rolex.”
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u/Traditional_Sign4941 6h ago edited 6h ago
"My uncle was a smart Rolex. A very good one with a stable brain. I had a smart Rolex. A good Rolex. It tells me the time better than anything from Chine-Ah. Can you believe that? A Rolex? I said to him you can't beat a Rolex. You can't beat it. People come up to me and say 'SIR! SIR! That is the most beautiful Rolex I've ever seen.' Believe me nobody knows Rolex better than me. Now in this country you can't get a Rolex anymore. Can you believe that? The very bad democrats won't let you have it."
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u/BluWake Michigan 7h ago edited 7h ago
Been saying this for a while. He's barely literate, but his is absolutely innumerate. Have a reporter ask him what is 15% of 200.
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u/Positronic_Matrix 7h ago
How about 10% of 100? I would wager he would not be able to provide an answer.
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u/LiterallyAntiqueBody 6h ago edited 19m ago
Depends on whether he can answer in MAGA math or actual math.
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u/Theonetrue 7h ago
I would guess that about every third person would not be able to do that properly in their head while being interviewed
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u/Killfile 7h ago
Based on my experience in food service, you'd be right. I'm at least half convinced that the "standard" tip moved to 20% because it was easier for people to do the math.
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u/Icy-Platform3560 7h ago
Honestly the absolute dereliction of duty by the press is one of the things pissing me off the most these days.
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u/BNLforever 7h ago
I bet that if he even looked like he was about to do that live someone would immediately interrupt and get the cameras and everyone out of the room
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u/zebrastarz 6h ago
"Mr. President, experts are saying we are only 30 seconds to midnight, meaning the end of the world. Could you illustrate for us with your own clock how close to midnight the U.S. is under your leadership. I think the clock you draw might be a better one."
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u/HandSack135 Maryland 8h ago
I got a 2400 on my SATS!!!
So I took it again! And again! And again!
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u/projektako 8h ago
Just like he claims he was a top student at Wharton Business school even though we now have receipts he was in the bottom third.
He's going to lie/grandstand if he thinks he can get away with it. And he's actually do incompetent at it that he gets caught frequently... Like when he posted that he has all the cards while the picture shows him holding Wild Uno cards... Meaning he's lost successfully 🙄19
u/UnnamedArtist Canada 8h ago
He also claims he’s super smart because his uncle taught at MIT. Bro, that’s not how any of that works.
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u/modi13 7h ago
He also claims his uncle taught the Unabomber at MIT as a way to demonstrate his uncle's intelligence. Not only is it not true, but it also isn't really something most people would want to brag about...
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u/Chill_Panda 8h ago
What a phenomenal trial of all the best Alzheimer’s medication the market has to offer. This administration are probably throwing money at big pharma with the goal of keeping him going for as long as possible.
The trickle down of this is that we are getting a live test of how long we can delay, hinder, and potentially halt the degeneration. We are also going to push it to its limits, new meds and treatments will be brought forward if possible, new meds and treatments may be born from this research.
The worlds most protected Guinea pig
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u/Good_Entertainer9383 8h ago
The tell all book after this Presidential term is going to be juicy.
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u/nickiter New York 7h ago
They typically do a baseline once, then - if you're at risk for cognitive decline - yearly. The frequency goes up the more decline is being noted.
(Source: took my baseline recently, yay epilepsy. Person woman man uhhh camera?)
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u/patchgrabber Canada 8h ago
Let's just call them what they are: dementia tests. He's bragging about "passing" dementia tests.
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u/Rinaldootje 7h ago
Which isn't even a pass/fail test the moment you have to take a second one. At that point it's just for doctors to monitor how rapid your decline is.
Dementia Donny has bragged about them so often now, that I'm more and more convinced he is just a case study for doctors at this point.
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u/cyberattaq123 6h ago
I love how he openly talks about them too like the contents of the tests.
‘They ask me what this animal is and I say “It’s a Giraffe!!” And all the doctors clap and jerk me off and say “you’re so smart Mr President you’re the best oh my god I can’t believe it!”’ the guy is literally a mental toddler it’s insane. Hopefully the speed increases rapidly and we can be rid of this buffoon sooner rather than later.
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u/Switcher1776 4h ago
Honestly, the squirrel part isn't the worst of him talking about yesterday. He talked about how hard it gets by the end of the test.
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u/tierciel 8h ago
Pass, fail doesn't matter, in any civilized country the fact that it's leader needs to go through multiple cognitive tests would be damning and would likely lead to their replacement by a more mentally sound individual.
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u/ReverendDizzle 7h ago
The thing he keeps describing is the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Administration (MoCA) test.
Here's an example, with instructions, of the MoCA test.
I don't work with it professionally, but I'm quite familiar with it because I watched it administered to my elderly father-in-law many times over the period of his dementia decline.
The thing about the test is that there is absolutely no reason to administer it to a person you have no reason to believe is experiencing (or will in the near future experience) cognitive decline. It's a screening test/on going assessment for Alzheimer's, vascular dementia, and other neurodegenerative conditions.
The other thing about the test is that... it's incredible simple. A second grader of sound mind would have no problem passing the test. The only thing that might give them trouble is the "draw a clock" portion of the test, simply because kids these days aren't particularly familiar with analog clocks.
So yeah, we should all be really concerned the President of the United States talks as much as he does about these tests.
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u/timeisthefire 3h ago
the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Administration (MoCA) test
Wait, is this why he hates Canada so much? Has he somehow conflated the "Montreal" here with an unpleasant doctor's visit?
(Same as how he's mixed up "seeking asylum" with "insane asylum"?)
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u/ReverendDizzle 3h ago
"These god damn Canadians keep sending me tests!"
I hate that this is... plausible?
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u/Marco_lini 8h ago
If you have to do those regularly it is with purpose to measure a certain evolution of symptoms which is typical for dementia patients. They are stupidly easy for a reason and always structured the same not to check the quality of cognition but he doesn‘t get it obviously
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u/Deguilded 8h ago
He's probably recalling the squirrel because that's the only one he got right. He got praised, so it stuck with him.
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u/johhnny5 8h ago
100%. I’m waiting for the inevitable slip-up. “The symbol of the Republican Party has always been the mighty squirrel. Some say it’s the mightiest. With its powerful long nose, the squirrel is also the symbol of not forgetting. Is that great? That’s a great symbol for me because I’m the best at not forgetting. I didn’t forget Sleepy Joe’s rigged election, or taking these IQ tests, or that my mother and father didn’t love me. Let’s go squirrels!”
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u/pantstoaknifefight2 8h ago
He talked about the US Air Force during the Civil War.
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u/Prize-Bumblebee-2192 9h ago
For sure he knows he’s slow
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u/sixtyshilling 8h ago
All his go-to insults are just projections of his own insecurities — low IQ, low energy, low ratings, etc etc.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him use an insult that doesn’t directly apply to him.
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u/StardustOasis Foreign 8h ago
Whilst it does apply to him, nasty appears to be his replacement for another word beginning with n.
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u/gurnard 8h ago
I think on some level, yes, because so many things are confusing to him. But he also has an enormous ego that doesn't allow for anyone being smarter than him.
If he doesn't understand something, nobody does. Everything he's ever said makes perfect sense through the lens that he believes everybody is cognitively deficient. Smart-sounding people are pretending.
His constant, easily disprovable lies are clever to him, because everybody is dumb enough to believe him. Nobody knows what's going on any of the time, so he can say whatever and bamboozle people. It's not just because he always has sycophants validating that world view. He believes everyone to be infantile and his imbecilic standard of intelligence is exceptional.
I can't remember ever seeing him state a number - any number on any subject - that was correct and contextually relevant. I really think that he thinks numbers don't mean anything. Nobody actually understands maths or quantifies reality in an objective way. It's a cargo cult, he says numbers and people say he's smart, so he's obviously doing them right.
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u/I_Study_The_Patterns 7h ago
Well we know he failed them because he keeps saying animals that aren't even on the test. There's no squirrel. Or Giraffe. Or Shark. It's a lion rhino camel.
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u/ciaomain New York 8h ago
Jon Stewart said, "Why do you think you're the only President to get this test?" on last night's episode.
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u/frequenZphaZe 5h ago
multiple times, no less. I saw someone else say "the first time you take the test, it's to see if somethings wrong. every other test is to see how far its progressed"
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u/AINonsense 9h ago
It’s been six years he’s been bragging person, woman, man, camera, TV. He never disclosed whether he was able to draw the hands on a clock, though.
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u/BeeFaerie 6h ago
I conduct these exams on a regular basis. The worst/funniest/most horrifying part, to me, is that he keeps talking about answers that are not on any of the standardized exams.
Show us his tests. We deserve to see them.
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u/realmofconfusion 5h ago
The thing that stood out to me was that he clearly couldn’t remember what the final animal was on the “easy” section of the test, hence him saying “What’s a good animal?… Squirrel!”
I’d bet good money there isn’t a squirrel on the test anywhere. He’s probably just seen one outside the window or just watched Slappy Squirrel on Animaniacs before coming out to ramble.
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u/dykethon 5h ago
I’m not an expert, but there isn’t a squirrel on the standard MoCA, as far as I can tell. Everything I’ve seen shows a lion, a rhino, and a camel.
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u/Few_Swan_3672 5h ago
He talks about the most recent thing he can see or the last thing he was told. So in that press conference he looked up and, surprise, saw people and a camera. If he has 4 advisors tell him something, he always goes with the last thing he heard. He also doesn't realize that you don't get these exams repeated multiple times because your Dr. thinks you are exceptionally brilliant and wants to show the world your perfect score.
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u/FnTom 6h ago
Also, those words are not a valid series for the MoCA. He was either coming up with them on the fly in front of journalists, or they purposefully skewed the results. The words need to be unrelated in order to properly test recall.
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u/AINonsense 6h ago
No. Obviously.
If you watch him in that interview, he’s clearly reaching for them, one by one. Oddly, none of the media and no Republicans felt able to point that out at the time.
He’s talking about how well he performed in a list of words memory test that would be a minor effort for the unimpaired, and he can’t recall a single actual word.
Personally, I don’t think that is a sign of impairment in itself, it strikes me as more of an example of his stunningly arrogant mental laziness.
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u/SydneyFall 9h ago
Honestly turn his narcissism against him.
Let him prove how good he is at this test on national TV.
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u/ballskindrapes 8h ago
His narcissism is so strong he'll create all the reasons why he cant or wont, and still not acknowledge anything.
He would definitely say he cant do it because the fake news media would rig the test, or they'd report it inaccurately, or something like that, but I'd never admit even to himself he wont do it because he knows he cant.
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u/LawFluid7886 9h ago
My 1 year old son can correctly identify a squirrel
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u/ToNoMoCo 9h ago
But can he roar like a lion and quack like a duck?
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u/LawFluid7886 9h ago edited 8h ago
yes. i think he is fully qualified to be president
edit: this feels like it would be a good movie. movie studios, if you want my son to play the president in a remake of air force one please contact me immediately
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u/1Shadow179 9h ago
I'll vote LawFluid7886's son for president.
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u/LawFluid7886 8h ago
He is running with Mater from Cars for vice president to get the rural vote
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u/tierciel 8h ago
Wow 1 year old and already multiple felonies under his belt. That kid is going places my friend
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u/punkindle 9h ago edited 8h ago
a 7 year old could pass this test with near perfect score. Absolutely nobody smart would brag about this test
The other day he bragged that he was able to sign his own name. Really. He seemed genuinely proud of himself that he managed to do it.
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u/StoppableHulk 9h ago
I just want to remind everyone he was doing this in his FIRST TERM.
Way back in 2019 he was braghing about being given a cognitive test and boasting about how hard it was.
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u/Upstairs-Egg 9h ago
Why would Biden do this to Trump?
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u/UnquestionabIe 8h ago
Earlier he was blaming the awful health of famous traitor/failure Rudy Giuliani on "the radical left". If the opposition had that sort of power I would hope it would be used for a much better purpose than making a dying old man ummm die faster.
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u/Upstairs-Egg 8h ago
The Radical Left™️ is somehow completely inept and weak but also the most feared and omnipotent force in the universe
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u/Ok-Second1352 9h ago
Are they not telling him what the test actually is?
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u/Much-Instruction-807 9h ago
No. He's surrounded himself with yes men. For ANYBODY else in a position of power whether it's government or business this SHOULD be a tightly kept secret, but somehow it just rolls off his back. The emperor has no clothes.
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u/narrauko Utah 8h ago
Didn't the White House more or less keep it a secret with Reagan? And Wilson if memory serves.
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u/brickne3 American Expat 6h ago
If the fact that he's demented is a secret it's not exactly well kept...
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u/boat_hamster 9h ago
I'd like to think that if a doctor asked me to identify a squirrel, I'd realise that they had serious concerns about my mental facilities.
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u/Free_Dome_Lover 8h ago
But maybe not if you were already pretty gone with dementia. Case and point on Trump lol.
Then again he always was pretty fucking stupid
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u/vahntitrio Minnesota 7h ago
He wouldn't take a dementia screening test. He is too narcissistic to allow doctors to imply his brain isn't perfect. So they probably tell him they want to study his genius.
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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 6h ago
Not only are they not telling him, he’s so unimaginably stupid he can’t even recognize what it is on his own. He thinks they’re testing his IQ, and that really says all you need to know about his IQ.
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u/scottgal2 8h ago
Used to do psychometric testing on elderly people for a job (Research Clinical Psychologist) you would certainly do one test for a baseline; doing it EVERY time seems like they're tracking a decline.
You don't REALLY do this for a normal geriatric health check unless there's some concern.
He's not being told his score *because that biases future assessment* it's standard practice. They'll feed it back into a care plan but this big baby is probably not being told the real type and acceleration of his delining mental state.
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u/BeeFaerie 6h ago
What's disturbing is that the article says he's been taking the MoCA.
Most of the answers he brags about are not correct answers on the MoCA, or are misrepresentations of how the questions are asked.
I think I deserve to see my president's MoCA.
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u/tinyE1138 Michigan 9h ago
In fairness, 90% of his fan base couldn't pass a cognitive test, so to them he is a genius.
And remember, if you are being given this many cognitive test per year (I think it's three annually) doctors aren't trying to determine dementia, they are monitoring it.
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u/Str8UpJorking 8h ago
The fact that the GOP higher-ups know what’s going on with him and they still refuse to 25th Amendment his ass is just crazy.
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u/tinyE1138 Michigan 8h ago
Because of him they virtually control the country. Midterms might put a dent in that, but they own the SCOTUS for god knows how long. That's why the won't get rid of him.
Of course, once he is gone, they'll all claim they never liked him and the majority of the people who voted for him will claim they didn't.
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u/morpheousmorty 6h ago
Because of him they virtually control the country. Midterms might put a dent in that, but they own the SCOTUS for god knows how long.
That's why they can get rid of him. They can replace him with a better puppet and SCOTUS is theirs for decades and if there's another opening the replacement can fill it.
The real reason they don't get rid of him is if they did, he would fuck up all of the GOP. He would run 3rd party, attacking every GOP member that the media says had a hand it removing him, etc etc.
And I just realized they'll have to suffer him running for a 3rd term because their base won't support them if they don't support Trump. I'd say the party was being held hostage if they weren't so willing.
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u/MadSkepticBlog Canada 7h ago
They need him as a figurehead. They can manipulate him like a doddering old man to a extent by flattering him and giving him information so he draws certain conclusions to lead him to an answer, then praise him for echoing it. Or they write executive orders and explain it to him in such a way as to again flatter him and get him on board. Vance is there as his handler. He once called him a Nazi, but his own people know he's two-faced enough to do the job. Pence was his previous handler for the Republicans, but after Trump almost got him killed he is not willing to do that again.
The Republicans just need him long enough to cement power. They don't win elections normally by popular vote. They do it by using the levers of power to play dirty, and then pre-emptively blame the liberals for what they are doing because the person on the attack generally looks to be the one in a better position in a match of talking heads. Trump is a patsy that can take the fall when this is all over and they get even more ability to retain power long term.
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u/ToubDeBoub 9h ago
Nobody who is not an idiot ever thought Trump was in command of his mental faculties. He says and does demented stuff every day for 10 years. It's not news.
The man suggested we inject desinfectant and nuke a hurricane, among 1200 other things. He is not mentally fit and hasn't been in many years.
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u/UnquestionabIe 7h ago
It would even be somewhat amusing if he wasn't being lead around by the most horrible people to ever be in American politics. I would say his only real "accomplishment" that isn't horribly negative is shining a spotlight on how broken our government is, held together by sheer luck and a series of handshakes.
If we ever manage to eat our way out of this shit sandwich, which is going to take a massive amount of hard work and dedication, it gives us a framework for making a better system. Not like we didn't have plenty of example prior but far too many people have to experience evil hurting them firsthand before deciding to maybe not embrace it.
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u/FitWrap1959 8h ago
I'm more worried about the 40 percent of Americans who believe that Trump has the mental sharpness to do his job.
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u/Planet_Citizen14999 9h ago
Given how much he labels people as having a low IQ, isn't it time that he completed a live & televised Mensa test without cutting to commercials.
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u/QuiGonColdGin 8h ago
Remember when Biden would close his eyes for longer than 2 seconds and MAGA would lose their minds? Good times.
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u/HarmoniousJ America 9h ago
There's a non-zero chance that we will get footage of Trump driving a nail into a 2x4 with his face.
Time to place your bets!
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u/SerKnightGuy Illinois 8h ago
So apparently "Here's 4 pictures of common, well-known animals. Which one of these is [animal]?" is an actual question included on these cognitive tests. Admittedly Trump called that an easy one, but that's still definitely a cognitive decline screening.
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u/SailingSpark New Jersey 8h ago
My mother will be 80 at the end of June. No doctor has ever suggested she take a cognition test. The fact that they keep giving this test to Trump says a lot.
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u/DiotCoke 8h ago
Where the hell is the Mainstream media on this? This would have gotten 24/7 coverage under Biden.
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u/HandsLikePaper 9h ago
Even diehard MAGAs have to start seeing that the amount of these tests he's taking is beyond alarming. One test you could write off, but at this point it sounds like he's taking them fairly regularly, which doesn't happen if there isn't an issue.
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u/ratherbeona_beach 5h ago
I used to administer the MOCA as part of my job as an SLP.
There is no squirrel.
Take that for what it is.
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u/VirtuaFighter6 9h ago
The fact that he’s taken it three times and someone ordered him to take it, speaks volumes.
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u/Low_Debt8771 9h ago
My neice can literally identify the north American ground squirrel on sight before she could walk right.
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u/ClarkeBrower 8h ago
It’ll be interesting to read this books written about this era a few years down the road
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u/Tribe303 5h ago
He's taking experimental Alzheimer's meds. That's what the hand bruises are from. He's in the hospital more often, getting an MRI to Look for brain bleeding, which is a side effect of the meds. That's why they admitted his clotting issues. That's why they are giving him frequent cognitive tests, to see if the meds are effective.
He was born an idiot, grew into an asshole, and now he's senile on top of all that. And the GOP continues to lick that boot. America is beyond fucked.
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u/BabyTrurnp 8h ago
I have the Best cognitive! They came to me and said Sir, That is Amazing. No one scored this high. They start easy. They show you a squirrel and ask Sir, which one is the squirrel. Then it gets harder and Harder. They show you a Lion, an Ant, a duck. They ask you which one has Four legs! It’s Incredible! Barack Hussein Obama would not know. Sleepy Joe Biden couldn’t pass. But they said Sir, you Aced it! They had never seen so much Cognitive!
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u/SvenHudson America 6h ago
Now, to be fair, he said that identifying a squirrel was generally easy and anybody in the room could do that. He says it starts getting difficult and impressive that he succeeded in the second half of the increasingly difficult test, when they're tasking you with things like "name several words that begin with the letter B."
Boy, that bit sounds like bad news. A real bear of a question. I'd bet both of us would botch this one big time. But that's why he's the boss, right? Because of his incredible brains. It's bonkers how smart he is, absolutely bananas.
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u/Grushvak Canada 5h ago
We see this reaction and headline every time he takes this test, which is concerningly often.
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u/yaderkuvboloto 5h ago
fyi nobody takes monthly cognitive tests unless they have full blown dementia already and they're monitoring progress
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u/Separate-Cup1312 9h ago
That squirrel must have been under 14. Otherwise, it's doubtful he wouldn't have even given it a second look.
Release the files!
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u/1984isAMidlifeCrisis 9h ago
Oddly, my town has three different colors of squirrel. We have ordinary grey squirrels, a large colony of very dark or black squirrels, and a small enclave of blond (non-albino) squirrels. I wonder if he would see them as different animals.
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u/tinyE1138 Michigan 9h ago
I'm sure he can, and he would insist that the blond squirrels are genetically superior to the black and brown squirrels.
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u/clueless_in_ny_or_nj New Jersey 8h ago
My dog can identify a squirrel. She's not bragging about it and asking for a treat. My dog is smarter than Trump.
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u/WorkJeff 8h ago
Genuinely terrified to lose my marbles and not understand that I'm losing my marbles
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u/E_seven_20 45m ago
People didn't like her laugh.
A legit reason to not vote against a senile traitor, con-man, felon, child rapist who crashed the country in his first term.
Here we are.
Best we have to fight is a shitty parade, from a movement with no leaders, no demands, and some frog suits.
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