Donald Trump raised eyebrows on Sunday when he challenged his Republican presidential primary rival Nikki Haley to a mental aptitude test.
Haley has upped her attacks on Trump in recent weeks and on Saturday suggested the former president is “not as sharp” as he “used to be” when he appeared to mix her up with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during a campaign speech.
Asked by Fox News’ Martha MacCallum about Haley’s assessment, Trump argued he was “a lot sharper than” his former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
The four-times-indicted Trump then suggested, “I would do this. I would sit down right now and take an aptitude test and it would be my result against her result and she’s not gonna win, not gonna even come close to winning.”
Trump: I think I’m a lot sharper than Haley. I’d take an aptitude test and it would be my result against her result. When I heard the word cognitive, you know, I’ve taken two of them now. One with Doc Ronny who is now a fantastic, you know, White House doctor. pic.twitter.com/BiYeL0bqOz
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 22, 2024
“In fact, when I heard the word ‘cognitive,’ you know, I’ve taken two of them now,” Trump continued. “I took one with Doc Ronnie, who’s now a fantastic, you know, White House doctor, and a fantastic congressman from Texas. Admiral. The White House doctor. Jackson. Ronny Jackson. And he’s now a great congressman from Texas. I took one then and I took one recently. I think the result was announced and it was, I aced it twice. I aced it.”
“But I would say that, you know, I’ve actually called for a cognitive test for anybody running for president because I actually think that’s a good idea. It’d be nice to have an intelligent person be president,” Trump added.
Haley herself has called for presidential candidates over the age of 75 to pass cognitive tests.
Trump’s comment predictably went viral on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter:
🔊 At the end… someone on Team Trump needs to tell him that cognitive tests don’t measure intelligence. 🙄 https://t.co/YY6aAJC0OQ
— LA 🏆 🆂🅰🆂🆂🆈 🅻🅰🆂🆂 (😅) 🐦 (@LA_SassyPants) January 22, 2024
Person. Woman. Man. Nancy. Pelosi.
— Outspoken™️ (@Out5p0ken) January 22, 2024
Nikki Haley sucks, but she should absolutely agree to any public head-to-head testing Trump challenges her to, up to and including powerlifting total. https://t.co/9yxOhTojvK
— Two Thousand Tommy Four (@zucko) January 22, 2024
He seems to think taking a cognitive test is an achievement of some sort.
— robert jon anderson (@R_JonAnderson) January 22, 2024
My not knowing Ronny Johnson has been out of the White House and in Congress for three years now has people asking questions already answered by my “passed all my cognitive tests” T-shirt https://t.co/WCc64TmhQU
— zpaks for colds (@WilliamEltonMD) January 22, 2024
Nikki should do this, set a time and place and dare Trump to show up. All systems go, 100% campaign commitment to this challenge and nothing else. Not joking. https://t.co/07XXbSGYu9
— Centrist 🤝Madness (@CentristMadness) January 22, 2024
Nikki Haley should challenge him to take a test together and on live TV.
Make him put his money where his mouth is .
— Bluedog (@HereLiesBlueDog) January 22, 2024
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