Trump says he 'aced' cognitive test, but White House keeps mum on details

WASHINGTON • US President Donald Trump volunteered to Fox News host Sean Hannity that he "very recently" took a test at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre measuring his mental acuity and "aced" it, but the White House would not say when he took it or why.

Mr Trump boasted that his success on the test surprised his doctors as he continued his attempt to make a campaign issue of whether his presumptive Democratic opponent, former vice-president Joe Biden, was mentally fit.

"I actually took one when I, very recently, when I, when I was, the radical left were saying, 'Is he all there? Is he all there?' And I proved I was all there, because I got - I aced it. I aced the test," Mr Trump, 74, said in an interview with Mr Hannity on Thursday.

He went on to say that Mr Biden should also take the test.

"And he should take the same exact test, a very standard test. I took it at Walter Reed Medical Centre in front of doctors," Mr Trump said.

"And they were very surprised. They said, 'That's an unbelievable thing. Rarely does anybody do what you just did'. But he should take that same test."

Mr Trump described taking the test after Mr Hannity mentioned that Mr Biden had said he had taken several cognitive tests. The President insisted that Mr Biden must have meant tests he took for the coronavirus and that his rival "couldn't pass" a cognitive test.

Mr Trump's aides did not respond to questions about what test he took, when he took it or whether the results would be made public.

Over more than three years, he has repeatedly faced questions about his own health, including why he made a mysterious visit to Walter Reed Medical Centre in November last year that White House officials later claimed was to get a jump on his annual physical.

After his most recent examination, Dr Sean Conley, the White House physician who examined him, said: "The data indicates the President remains healthy."

But Dr Conley's summary was not the customary report Mr Trump and other presidents have released immediately after an annual physical exam. Rather than one examination, the summary was based on an unknown number of medical appointments that included the visit to Walter Reed in November and another from a check-up conducted in April at the White House.

NYTIMES