Washington: Former U.S. President Donald Trump's recent health evaluation has confirmed that his brain function remains normal while highlighting concerns regarding his weight, which puts him at risk of being overweight.
According to Thai News Agency, a misunderstanding emerged after Trump announced on Truth Social on May 31st that he had achieved "Extreme Intelligence" by scoring perfectly on four cognitive tests. Trump claimed that the tests were extremely challenging and that only a few individuals could repeatedly achieve such scores. However, it is believed that the test Trump referred to was the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), which is not an intelligence test.
Siyad Nasreddine, the neuroscientist who developed the MoCA, clarified that the assessment is designed to evaluate dementia by analyzing brain function, including cognitive potential, memory, language use, computational skills, and abstract thinking. It does not measure intelligence or IQ but assesses whether brain function remains normal.
The MoCA takes roughly 10 minutes and includes tasks such as vocabulary recitation, number arrangement, subtraction, drawing comparisons, and time and location identification. A score between 26 and 30 indicates normal brain function, while scores below 26 suggest potential cognitive decline.
While achieving a perfect MoCA score four times is uncommon, it is not as daunting as Trump suggested. Nasreddine emphasized that the MoCA needs to strike a balance, being neither too easy nor too difficult, to accurately detect early brain abnormalities while minimizing misdiagnosis risk.
Trump's assessment was part of his physical examination at Walter Reed Military Medical Center, where his weight was also a topic of concern. At 80 years old and weighing 238 pounds (108 kilograms), Trump has gained 14 pounds (6 kilograms) since his last physical in April 2025. With a height of 190.5 centimeters, Trump's Body Mass Index (BMI) is 29.7, nearing the obesity threshold of 30.