To begin. I, like many other writers – even Chris Wallace on Fox News – got sucked into believing that Trump was descending into Alzheimer’s and physical problems, neurological in nature, by reading people on Twitter and seeing videos. I will say that at every point, I noted that only a neurologist with a full examination, tests, and labwork (including a urine drug screen) could make a diagnosis. Having seen what selected “clips” can do to Joe Biden – who blew the Congress away at the State of the Union, then flew into a war zone over 24 hours (total time for the trip) and with little protection, I believe that Biden “passed” his physical and mental acuity test.

I am not the least bit opposed to having both eventual nominees undergo a full examination, physical, neurological, psychiatric, and psychological (which is different) prior to being put on the ticket. I would entrust a group of retired judges to simply pick one of the many fine medical-research institutions to impartially do the tests, anywhere from Stanford, to the Mayo Clinic, to Mass General or Hopkins. We have the world’s best facilities and professionals from coast to coast.

I find the psychological examination to be critical. Even though the MAGAs would literally start a war over the findings, a psychological – as opposed to psychiatric test, could have predicted that the sociopathic narcissistic personality disorders that would disqualify him from running a medium-sized insurance company, certainly a bank. He can’t run a charity in New York, but he can be president?

So, you betcha. I have no doubt that while Joe may not be as quick as he once was, he’s just fine, and quickness can be far less valuable than experience and judgment, both of which Biden has bubbled over, both of which Trump might struggle with. (It’s not going to happen because there’s likely insufficient time to set it up properly prior to 2024. One would need a neutral group to pick a mutually agreed upon the institution and then write the rules on what “passing” means. Can the doctors just conclude at the end, as a group, that someone failed? These are questions Trump is too stupid to ask and… so it would take a while to set up and likely a law by Congress.

But what is hilarious is that Trump’s video announcement includes referencing the cognitive exam that he took (bizarrely) in the last year of his presidency. He took the standard Montreal exam. Pick out the lion in the picture. Is this a square or a circle, and the only thing that he did “well” upon is remembering the five things, let’s recite, person, man, camera, woman, tv. It IS hard for some with ADD to remember those five words, and if someone basically gets it, it’s a pass if everything else is in order.

The point is that we don’t even know WHY he was given this test seemingly out of the blue. We know Dr. Ronny Jackson had given him the same test in 2017, but we don’t know why someone believed he needed it in 2020. But he’s still just so damned proud of that exam that he has yet to figure out that the exam is one that tests simply to determine if one is obviously “disabled,” and cannot have a driver’s license, unable to care for themselves, and may need to be in memory care. That is the point of the “Aced” test. An eight-year-old is supposed to “Ace” that test.

A real test would involve something like the SATs: “Trump Is to the United States as _____ is to Russia, reading an article on some esoteric topic, like flower pollination, two pages, then answering five questions about it. This is the cognitive exam that might give Trump real trouble.

But listen to the PRIDE he still has in “Acing” the test that is designed to be “Aced” by anyone healthy:

Okay. Right there. I’m sure you see it. A cognitive problem sticking right out in the open, because if you “Aced” the exam the first time, by definition, you cannot “do better” the next time. So he has difficulty understanding basic concepts. Additionally, a narcissist would be confident enough to say that he could somehow do better than the perfection he showed just two years prior.

He would NOT pass my test. I’d give him a test like the LSAT, where you read a difficult short article, perhaps Christopher Hitchens breaking down the merits of King Lear and then answering five questions on the article – fast. I guarantee Obama would blow the doors off it, and I guarantee that Biden would know that King Lear is a play by Shakespeare, whereas Trump would think he’s being tested about the leader of Borneo.
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, SUBSTACK: MUCH LEFT ADO

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17 COMMENTS

  1. Being the president of the u.s. is only required:

    To be a natural-born US citizen. To be a minimum age of 35 years old. To have been a resident of the United States for 14 years. To have not served for 2 terms previously as president.

    A witless moron, if he checks all the boxes above, and is elected by the other witless morons in our nation, can be president. This was of course demonstrated when the orange shit gibbon was elected in the 2016 election. I’d say and served from 2017 thru 2020 but quite frankly he only served himself so that statement doesn’t quite fit.

    53
    • I believe it was HL Mencken who said that one day the common people of America would have their heart’s desire and the office of President would be filled by a downright moron.

  2. I honestly think that reading is a problem for him. Either that or comprehension. I think if you gave him a paragraph to read and asked questions afterward, there would be problems.

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      • That’s possible, but since he apparently quit learning anything he didn’t care about by the time he was six, he probably never learned to read much or well. All those stories about what they had to do to get any of his attention in briefings make him sound nearly illiterate.

        31
        1
  3. He’s an idiot no doubt. Just remember all the stupidity he exhibited over and over and over. You don’t need a test for that. I would give examples but they are too numerous and idiotic to repeat. Oh, and if a conspiracy nut bag is your star witness…well…

    30
  4. I believe he’s just basically dumb. He never studied in school (ask any of his professors). He doesn’t understand simple spelling or grammar, or sentence structure. He’s just an entitled bully who’s uses his ill-gotten stature to force himself onto the public stage. It will be American history’s biggest embarrassment.

    38
  5. I had read a story a couple years ago about him being sent to College ,I think it was Penn. State but not sure . A story was told by the Professors there at the time that some had never seen him in any of their classes only one said he came to his class once for about 15 min. and he never saw him again . So there you go …. dad just wanted to get him out of his hair , and Trump didn’t learn anything .

    17
    • He went to Penn, which is private, Ivy League. He was there “some” – not much. One professor has said that he never met a student dumber than Donald Trump.

      You are thinking about Penn State, an academic powerhouse, too – but it’s Pennsylvania’s flagship Tier I research institution. He didn’t go there.

      13
  6. It’s clear money can buy you almost anything, including a degree. Intelligence? Wisdom? Love of learning? Critical thinking skills? Nope.

    14

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