Jimmy Kimmel has taken a “cognitive test” similar to the one President Donald Trump said he had “aced,” with the talk-show host calling it “as difficult as the maze on the back of the box of Cap’n Crunch.”
Trump has spoken several times about “acing” a cognitive test that he said was “not easy.”
On an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday night, Kimmel said he had asked a doctor to carry out a cognitive test with him “in the interest of fairness” and “to get a sense of what he keeps babbling about.”
Why It Matters
Concerns over the mental fitness and age of the presidential candidates became an important talking point during the 2024 presidential election race.
Trump was 78 when he was sworn in for his second term in January 2025, making him the oldest person ever to be inaugurated as U.S. president. Trump has leveraged his cognitive test results as evidence of his fitness for office.
But Trump has faced repeated scrutiny over his health during his second term. Photos circulated online last year showing bruising and discoloration on his hands.
What To Know
Trump posted on Truth Social last Friday: “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, my cognitive examination, something which no other President, or previous Vice President, was willing to take.”
On Monday, Kimmel showed a clip of Trump telling a crowd that he had taken three cognitive tests and “aced every one of them.” Kimmel joked: “I’m not sure being asked to take three cognitive exams is quite the flex he thinks it is.”
Kimmel then added: “In the interest of fairness, and also to get a sense of what he keeps babbling about, we got in touch with a doctor who gives this test regularly… and I asked her to administer one to me.”
The comedian was then seen being asked to complete multiple tasks, including drawing a cube, linking numbers and letters in ascending order, drawing the time on a clock face, and naming several animals.
Kimmel was also asked to repeat a sequence of words and numbers that the doctor read, and then to list as many words as he could with the letter “f.”
“Fart, fish, flop, fan, funk, frantic, friend, flop, flip, flow, feel, freezing,” Kimmel said, before asking: “What words do you think Trump came up with for the letter ‘f’?”
He then guessed the words Trump would have named: “Finances, French fries, fat.”
What People Are Saying
Donald Trump said in his post on Truth Social last week: “I strongly believe that anyone running for President, or Vice President, should be mandatorily forced to take a strong, meaningful, and proven Cognitive Examination. Our great Country cannot be run by ‘STUPID’ or INCOMPETENT PEOPLE!”
What Happens Next
President Trump has called for all presidential and vice-presidential candidates to undergo mandatory cognitive exams. However, there is currently no legal requirement for such testing.
