Critics called out President Donald Trump on Sunday for a bizarre claim he made about the magnetic resonance imaging test he was given during a hastily announced visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in October.
During a combative session with reporters on Air Force One, the president insisted that the MRI was “absolutely perfect,” but then also admitted he had “no idea” what it was for or even what part of his body was examined.
“It was just an MRI,” Trump said. “What part of the body? It wasn’t the brain because I took a cognitive test and I aced it.”
Then, he verbally attacked a reporter ― part of a recent pattern of hurling insults specifically at the women who cover him.
“I got a perfect mark,” he said of his cognitive test. “Which you would be incapable of doing.”
Trump also compared the MRI to his 2019 phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky, when he asked the Ukrainian leader to “do us a favor” and dig up dirt on expected 2020 presidential rival Joe Biden. Trump was later impeached by the House, but not convicted in the Senate, because of that call.
“It’s perfect,” he said. “Just like my phone call, where I got impeached. It’s absolutely perfect.”
Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who was the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council at the time, sat in on that call and reported concerns over what took place, seemed flabbergasted by the comparison.
He wrote on X:
Many critics, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) ― who Trump described as “seriously retarded” last week ― have demanded that the president release the results of his MRI.
On Sunday, Trump said he would do so.
Not everyone is convinced that whatever information he releases will provide many answers, though: