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Northwest I am not going to respond to all the issues you raise (your points are right on!) but will elaborate on Demented Donnie’s Montreal Cognitive Assessment.
First point: it
is not an IQ testas tRUMP has repeatedly claimed. It is a rapid assessment widely used since 1996 to screen for cognitive impairment. The assessment is limited to short-term memory, daily functioning, attention, and ability to focus. The expected score on the MoCA would be 30/30 or very close to that score for everyone who is not suffering from dementia. A “perfect score” is not something people would brag about (especially repeatedly for years). A perfect score does not rule out cognitive impairment which would require an extensive assessment and evaluation.
The MoCA is not a test that is typically repeated
unless there is continued concern about a patient’s cognitive status. For one thing, there is a
practice effect and repeated administrations of the MoCA are less predictive (which is especially true if
the same version of the exam is re-administered). Ever notice that tRUMP has claimed multiple times that “every time I take that test I score a perfect score” and that he always uses the same examples of the questions? If they are actually repeating the MoCA so often, that is serious reason for concern in and of itself. Secondly, why give him the same version each time when there are other versions with different questions?
And no physician would
ever tell a patient who did score 30/30 on the MoCA “I have never seen a patient score so high!” unless this was the first and only time they ever administered this test!Let me pause and say, those last questions may simply reflect that tRUMP demands to keep taking it each check up. But that does not really bode much better for him.
The MoCA does not really address executive thinking skills which are a basic requirement to function in any executive position, much more so as POTUS.
Next, the initial testing session was administered by then Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson (demoted post retirement to Captain [presumably the last rank he served
honorably at]. Jackson was serving as the Commander of the White House Infirmary at the time. Jackson is an Emergency Medicine Physician by training and there were a lot of issues with his service.
Jackson was called back to service from retirement for court martial after an Inspector General inspection of his management of the WH Infirmary. The primary focus of the court martial was his inappropriate prescribing of medications including opiates. There were a lot of other issues that included sexual harassment, hostile work environment, drunkenness on duty, and damage to a government vehicle. He was known as “Candyman” for his free dispensing of controlled medications. Throughout his career there were allegations of lack of professional ethics.
Jackson’s administration of the MoCA to tTRUMP is widely rumored not to have adhered to proper procedures (implication is “cheating was involved”).
