President Donald Trump’s recent medical examination showed no indication of cognitive impairment or dementia, according to the physician who conducted and supervised it.
His White House physician, U.S. Navy doctor Ronny Jackson, added what he called ‘a screening assessment for cognitive impairment’ to Trump’s annual health assessment. It resulted in a perfect score.
Based on his daily observations of the president, Jackson said, a mental screening would not normally be recommended.
But Trump himself asked for the test, he told reporters Tuesday at the White House.
‘I had absolutely no concerns about his cognitive ability or his – you know, his neurological function. So I was not going to do a cognitive exam. I had no intention of doing one,’ Jackson recalled.
‘The reason that we did the cognitive assessment is, plain and simple, because the president asked me to do it.’
‘He came to me and he said, “Is there something we can do, a test or some type of screening that we can do, to assess my cognitive ability?” And so I looked into it,’ Jackson said.
Trump scored a perfect 30 out of 30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a standard test that helps primary care physicians spot early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia.
Jackson said the test is ‘sensitive enough’ to identify any potential problems.
‘It would pick up on it. He would not have gotten 30 out of 30 on the test,’ Jackson declared.
‘I’m very confident at this particular stage that he has nothing like that going on … Absolutely no cognitive, mental issues whatsoever. He is very sharp.’
The White House has found itself beset with weeks of speculation about the president’s mental state, largely resulting from an author’s claim that most of Trump’s close aides are concerned about his psychological fitness for office.
‘That did drive part of the process,’ Jackson said Tuesday. ‘I think this has been the narrative for awhile, and I think he saw doing the physical as an opportunity to put some of that to rest.’
Trump ‘wasn’t, obviously, the least bit concerned that he had anything to hide,’ he added, ‘and so he actively asked me to include that in it, and so we did.’
Jackson said future cognitive testing would be up to the president, and that he personally wouldn’t have recommended it this year.
‘If the president wants to get one done next year, then we’ll do another one next year,’ he said.
The Montreal Cognitive Assessment is used at Walter Reed military hospital near Washington, D.C. it’s a 30-question test that includes measures of short-term memory, concentration and attention.
A score of 26 or higher is considered ‘normal.’ In one study, test-takers with mild cognitive impairment typicallly scored 22. Alzheimer’s patients scored an average of barely 16.
‘We picked one of the ones that was a little more involved,’ Jackson said of the Montreal test, comparing it to others he could have chosen. ‘It was longer. It was the more difficult one of all of them.’
‘It took significantly longer to complete but the president did exceedingly well on it.’
the doctor described Trump as ‘very sharp’ and sad ‘he’s very articulate when he speaks to me.’
‘I’ve never known him to repeat himself around me. He says what he’s got to say and he speaks his mind. I found no reason to think that the president has any issues whatsoever with his thought process.’
‘Absolutely he is fit for duty,’ he said of the president.
A number of psychiatrists, including a Yale doctor invited by congressional Democrats, have claimed Trump suffers from dementia-like symptoms that should be concerning enough to trigger an effort to remove him on constitutional grounds.
‘People shouldn’t be making those kinds of assessments about the president unless they’ve had the opportunity to get to know him and to examine him,’ Jackson insisted.
‘And in my opinion, that’s just tabloid psychiatry, and I’m not going to address it.’