President Donald Trump on Monday said he had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test during a hastily announced visit to Walter Reed Medical Center earlier this month.
“I got an MRI,” he told reporters while on Air Force One before arriving in Japan. “It was perfect.”
Trump was asked what doctors were looking for on the test.
“You can ask the doctors,” he said. “Nobody has ever given you reports like I give you.”
Trump, 79, said the doctors told him it was “some of the best reports they’ve ever seen” given his age.
Trump’s Oct. 10 visit to Walter Reed came just six months after his annual physical, and amid growing questions about the president’s health.
The White House released a statement at the time saying that Trump had received “advanced imaging,” but did not provide specifics.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to answer last week when asked if “advanced imaging” meant the president had an MRI.
The White House released a statement from Trump’s physician after the exam saying he is in “excellent overall health.”
Trump, who did not release medical records during the 2024 campaign, has been seen with swollen legs and bruises on his hand that he appears to cover with concealer.
The White House has said the swelling is due to chronic venous insufficiency, which involves poor blood flow from the legs back to the heart, and the bruising is from aspirin use and frequent handshaking.
Trump’s critics have also taken shots at his cognitive health, with at least two Democratic governors and one U.S. senator suggesting that he has dementia.
But on Monday, the president said he also took cognitive tests while at Walter Reed, saying, “they’re really aptitude tests.”
He bragged about passing, then claimed that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) couldn’t pass those same tests.
He didn’t name the test, but his description suggested it was the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or the infamous “person, woman, man, camera, TV” test he took in 2020 and has bragged about passing ever since.
Despite the president’s claims, it’s not an aptitude test nor an IQ test. It’s meant to check for signs of cognitive decline linked to dementia, and as such is intended to be easy to pass for someone with normal cognition.