What test did Trump actually take?
Trump took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), not an IQ test. The MoCA was administered during routine medical evaluations as president, first in January 2018 and again in 2020. According to his physicians, he scored 30 out of 30 on both occasions — a perfect score on this particular test.
Trump himself has publicly discussed taking the test and has claimed a high IQ on multiple occasions, including comparing his cognitive abilities to those of other public figures. The most famous moment came in a July 2020 Fox News interview where he repeatedly described five words — "Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV." — which is one of the MoCA's memory recall items.
The confusion comes from how this got reported. Many people interpreted "passed a cognitive test" or "perfect score on cognitive test" as meaning a high IQ. That's not what the MoCA measures.
What is the MoCA, actually?
The Montreal Cognitive Assessment is a 30-question screening tool designed to detect cognitive impairment — early signs of dementia, Alzheimer's, or significant cognitive decline. It takes about 10 minutes and covers:
- Visuospatial / executive function (drawing a clock, copying a cube)
- Naming objects (lion, rhinoceros, camel)
- Memory (recall 5 words after a delay)
- Attention (counting backward, repeating sequences)
- Language (sentence repetition, word fluency)
- Abstraction (how are a train and a bicycle similar?)
- Orientation (date, place)
A score of 26 or above is considered normal. Below 26 may indicate mild cognitive impairment. The test is designed to distinguish "cognitively normal" from "cognitively impaired" — not to rank people by intelligence.
Scoring 30/30 on the MoCA means you don't have detectable cognitive impairment. It does not mean you have a high IQ. The vast majority of healthy adults under 60 score 27–30. It's a low ceiling for normal cognition.
MoCA vs IQ test — the difference
These are fundamentally different instruments designed to answer different questions:
| Feature | MoCA | IQ Test (WAIS-IV) |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Detect impairment | Measure cognitive ability |
| Duration | 10 minutes | 60–90 minutes |
| Scoring | 0–30 | Bell curve, mean 100 |
| Ceiling | Low (30 max) | High (~160+) |
| Discriminates | Normal vs impaired | Full ability range |
| Used for | Medical screening | Education, clinical, research |
A perfect MoCA score is roughly equivalent to "no concerning signs of dementia or cognitive decline" — that's a meaningful medical finding for an older adult, but it tells you nothing about whether someone's IQ is 100, 130, or 160.
What is Donald Trump's actual IQ?
Unknown — because he has never taken a verified IQ test. Trump has claimed at various times to have a high IQ but has not released results from a formal cognitive assessment like the WAIS-IV.
This is the same situation as Einstein and many other historical figures: any specific number you see online attributed to Trump's IQ is speculation or unsupported claim, not measurement.
Without a real IQ test result, there's no factual basis for assigning him any specific number. Public figures often make claims about their cognitive abilities, but those claims aren't the same as actual test results.
What about other presidents?
Most US presidents have not publicly taken or released IQ test results. The "presidential IQ rankings" you see online (Kennedy at 158, Clinton at 137, etc.) are almost entirely retrospective estimates — guesses based on biography, writings, and accomplishments. They're no more reliable than the Einstein 160 figure.
One persistent internet hoax assigned IQ scores to all US presidents in a way designed to flatter Democrats and embarrass Republicans (or vice versa, depending on the version). None of those numbers come from real tests.
The honest assessment is that we don't know the IQ of any US president with confidence, because none have publicly taken a standardized test. We can observe their actual decisions, speeches, and writings — which tell us much more about their cognitive style than any number could.
The takeaway
If you want to actually measure cognitive ability — yours or anyone else's — you need a proper IQ test, not a cognitive screening tool. The MoCA is a useful medical instrument, but it isn't designed to rank healthy adults by intelligence.
Take our free 33-question IQ test for a credible self-assessment, or read our guide on how IQ tests work for the science behind cognitive measurement.
