Trump given high marks on exam
President Trump should lose some weight, exercise more and scale back on his beloved Big Macs, but his perfect score on a cognitive test suggests there’s “no reason whatsoever” to doubt his mental fitness, his doctor said.
“All clinical data indicates that the President is currently very healthy and that he will remain so for the duration of his Presidency,” Navy Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, the physician to the president, wrote in a memo.
Trump achieved 30 out of 30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a 10-minute test ranging from identifying illustrations of animals to naming in one minute as many words as possible that begin with the letter F.
Though his doctor said there was no need for such an exam, Trump requested one in hopes of putting to rest questions about his mental fitness to be in office, Jackson said.
He added Trump performed “exceedingly well” and that the president is “very sharp” and “very articulate when he speaks to me.”
Trump had his first physical exam as president last week at Walter Reed military hospital.
His blood pressure was 122 over 74, his resting heart rate was 68 beats per minute, and a stress test resulted in “above average exercise capacity.”
Stunned reporters questioned how Trump could have a relatively clean bill of health despite a propensity for downing greasy, arteryclogging fast food and a low-exercise lifestyle consisting mainly of golf.
“It’s called genetics,” said Jackson. “Some people have just great genes. I told the president that if he had a healthier diet over the past 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old.”
Jackson also attributed his health to abstinence from tobacco and alcohol.
Trump’s flying colors on his cognitive test gave his supporters ammo to try to put to rest the narrative that has emerged in recent months that Trump is mentally unfit for office or could even be experiencing early stages of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
“Now can we test the media for #TrumpDerangementSyndrome?” tweeted Donald Trump Jr. yesterday.
But Trump is overweight at 239 pounds — 3 pounds heavier than last year, and Jackson suggested the president drop up to 15 pounds in the year ahead.
He’s only had one surgery — an appendectomy at age 11.
Trump is the oldest president ever elected and turns 72 in June.