Donald Trump’s frequent boasts about his performance on acuity tests are concerning, one Democratic lawmaker says, because “you only take cognitive tests if your doctors are concerned about your cognitive abilities.”
Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, appearing on The Daily Beast Podcast, said the 79-year-old president seems to be “more senile” now than he was during his first term.
“I’m no doctor. I’m no psychologist. I’m no child psychologist, which might be more appropriate for the president,“ Moulton told host Joanna Coles. ”But he definitely seems to be getting worse. He really seems to be getting worse. He seems to be getting more senile. I mean, you don’t talk about cognitive tests a lot if you’re not taking cognitive tests, and you only take cognitive tests if your doctors are concerned about your cognitive abilities.”
“Everyone declines, whether we like it or not, at that age... I think it’s just that much more dangerous,” Moulton explained. “Most people can see that Donald Trump is dangerous—that he’s dangerous for our troops, for our country, for our economy, for our national security. I mean, there’s a long list. But he definitely seems more dangerous now than he was even in his first term.”
Trump, in a Truth Social post just last week, reiterated his claim that he had “aced” cognitive tests, which are designed to screen for mild cognitive impairment rather than measure IQ, as he has sometimes suggested.
Trump once again bragged about his results on a "cognitive" test. Truth Social
The White House insists that Trump is energetic and capable, both physically and mentally, of doing his job, despite the sleep-deprived president having been seen struggling to stay awake at important meetings lately.
Trump is “the sharpest, most accessible, and energetic president in American history,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast earlier Wednesday.
Moulton then argued why Trump, whose capabilities show no signs of improving, has already done so much damage to U.S. foreign policy through his war against Iran, which is well into its third month.
“This is the saddest thing because there actually at least was a lot of pro-American, pro-Western sentiment in Iran, and that’s what we saw with these brave, courageous protesters coming out in the face of machine guns to protest the regime,” Moulton, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, explained.
“But after they were all machine gunned down despite promises from Donald Trump to save them... instead of actually coming in to rescue the protesters, tens of thousands of them were killed by the regime,” he said. “And that all just further empowers the Iranian regime... I think that the regime change they’ve achieved by taking out the Ayatollah and putting in his son has actually made the government even more hardline.”
Trump "seems to be getting more senile," Moulton says. Kylie Cooper/REUTERS
Not only did Trump turn pro-American Iranians against the U.S., but he compounded the damage by bombing Iran with Israel, Moulton said.
“That’s going to make it harder to get a nuclear deal, harder to see any sort of revolutionary change that would actually overthrow the Islamic Republic and bring Iran back to a normal relationship with the rest of the world,” he said. “And obviously now they have the additional leverage of controlling the Strait of Hormuz on top of all that.”
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.