Jimmy Kimmel Puts Donald Trump's Cognitive Exam Claims To The Test & Proves What We All Suspected
The presidency should come with an age limit, and President Donald Trump is proof. The divisive politician has consistently bragged about "acing" his cognitive tests, even admitting that some of the questions are hard. So hard, in fact, that he believes few could get a perfect score. Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who is known for brutally slamming the Trump family and gave Trump a brand-new nickname at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards decided to take one for the team on the latest episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," and willingly subjected himself to the exact cognitive test the president has been taking.
"Let's find out just how difficult this big, beautiful test is and how my brain stacks up against our stable genius president's," Kimmel quipped. Needless to say, connecting dots, identifying drawings of animals, and coming up with words that start with the letter "F" wasn't much of a challenge for the comedian, who really did ace the test and subsequently joked, "So I can be president." Oh Jimmy, we wish.
Meanwhile, Trump took to Truth Social on January 2, 2026, to brag that he had just passed a third cognitive test with flying colors. "The White House Doctors have just reported that I am in 'PERFECT HEALTH,' and that I 'ACED' (Meaning, was correct on 100% of the questions asked!), for the third straight time," he penned, adding, "Our great Country cannot be run by 'STUPID' or INCOMPETENT PEOPLE!" He shared similar sentiments in an essay-like post on December 9, 2025, claiming he didn't know most of the doctors who administered the cognitive test (which makes us suspicious that the opposite is true) and that he's been told getting a good score is a big accomplishment. As Kimmel proved, it really isn't.
Trump's bragging about his cognitive tests is actually concerning to doctors
Donald Trump's attempts to set the record straight about his health have completely backfired, and as he bragged about getting a perfect score on a third cognitive test, doctors have publicly raised their concerns, with Dr. Vin Gupta telling MS Now that it's not normal to take that many cognitive tests, unless there is actually something wrong. "Those that tend to do Montreal [Cognitive Assessment Tool, or MOCA] tests with that level of frequency, usually we're worried about the presence of early-stage dementia or cognitive impairment, so he might be ruling himself in to something that he doesn't want to rule himself into," he said, per the Daily Beast.
Even more worryingly, psychologist Dr. John Gartner told the Daily Beast in December 2025 that Trump undergoing multiple cognitive tests indicates that his medical team is way past testing for dementia — they're monitoring the condition. "I think they're giving him cognitive tests and MRIs every six months to monitor the progress of his dementia, and/or strokes," Gartner surmised.
Creator of the MOCA test, Dr. Ziad Nasreddine, told MarketWatch in 2020 that the test isn't supposed to be as challenging as Trump described it. "[It] is supposed to be easy for someone who has no cognitive impairment," he explained, per The Guardian. "This is not an IQ test or the level of how a person is extremely skilled or not. The test is supposed to help physicians detect early signs of Alzheimer's." Trump might not realize it, but he's been loudly proclaiming just how bad his cognitive health really is every time he's bragged about being able to answer those "hard" questions. We suspect he's way past grasping the irony of the situation, however.