Donald Trump told his supporters in Iowa how he passed a cognitive test involving a series of arithmetic operations. The president said he solved the problem three times and that doctors were pleased with his performance.
„Not many people can do it. I could. "I did it three times and I passed that damn test," Trump said during a rally in Sioux City on October 22, 2026.
According to him, the problem began with a random number, for example, 49. Then the number had to be multiplied by 3, divided by 4, added to the result 2019, subtracted 87, the resulting result was divided by 3 and finally multiplied by 9.
When performing these operations in the specified order, the final result is 5906.25. However, Trump did not give an answer to the audience, but continued with the statement that he had successfully solved the problem. He also did not provide a medical document confirming that such a task was part of his study.
What the published medical report shows
The last publicly available detailed report on the president's health is related to a medical examination at “Walter Reed“ on May 26, 2026. It stated that his cognitive function was assessed using the MoCA test and that Trump received 30 out of 30 points.
The MoCA is a screening tool to identify signs of mild cognitive impairment and other problems with memory, attention and executive functions. It is not an intelligence test. Its tasks include serial subtraction of weeks from 100, as well as exercises for memory, language and orientation.
Trump has repeatedly described cognitive assessments as particularly difficult and has claimed that he passed them with maximum results. In Sioux City, he also said that the specialists at “Walter Reed“ were “exceptional“ and that the doctors were pleased with his results.
The only publicly confirmed result so far is the result of the medical report from May 2026. The claim about the specific multi-step arithmetic problem and its three-step solution comes from Trump himself.
Sources: theguardian.com, apnews.com, abcnews.com