Trump backs cognitive tests for presidents after his own gaffes

Former President Donald Trump came out in favor of mental competency test for presidents — despite a recent series of gaffes himself, including accusing “cognitively impaired” President Biden of launching the US into “World War II.”

Voicing his opposition to age limits on presidents, Trump predictably boasted that he’d “aced” a competency test when he was in office as he threw his support around them.

“No, but there should be a competency. I’m all for the test,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday.

“I took a test two years ago, three years ago,” Trump added. “And I aced it. I got everything right.”

One of his rivals, 2024 presidential hopeful Nikki Haley, 51, has called for compulsory tests for politicians ages 75 and up.

That would include both Trump, 77, and Biden, 80.

A recent CBS News/YouGov survey found that 77% of US adults sampled favor a maximum age for politicians.

“It’s always time for a new generation. But, you know, some of the greatest world leaders have been in their 80s,” Trump said in the interview. “And Biden’s not too old. I don’t think Biden’s too old. But I think he’s incompetent, and that’s a bigger problem.”

On Friday, Trump raised eyebrows with during a speech at the “Pray Vote Stand” summit in Washington, DC, during which he claimed that “cognitively impaired” Biden would careen the US into “World War Two” if he won a second term.

In another mishap, Trump appeared to insinuate that he was eclipsing former President Barack Obama in the polls.

“As you know, crooked Joe Biden and the radical left thugs have weaponized law enforcement to arrest their leading political opponent, and leading by a lot, including Obama — I’ll tell you what,” Trump mused. 

“You take a look at Obama and take a look at some of the things that he’s done, this is the same thing,” he continued. “The country is very divided and we did – with Obama, we won an election that everyone said couldn’t be won.”

Obama was president when Trump dispatched Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

Trump’s chief GOP foe, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 45, argued last week that “they probably would have put an age limit on some of these offices.”

“The presidency is not a job for someone that’s 80 years old,” he told CBS News. “You’re talking about a job where you need to give it 100%. We need an energetic president. And I think that if the founders could kind of look at this again, I do think they probably would have put an age limit on some of these offices.”

Biden is also no stranger to public slipups. Last year, for instance, he called out for late Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski during a White House event roughly eight weeks after she died.

More recently, he falsely suggested he at Ground Zero the day after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack. Biden’s autobiography placed him in Washington, DC.

Trump, who famously loves to drink Coca-Cola and chow down McDonalds, continued to downplay his age during the NBC interview and underscored his strong genetics.

“Well, I will be toward the end,” Trump said when moderate Kristen Welker noted he’d be in his 80s. “My father lived much longer than that. My mother lived much longer than that. So genetically, that’s a good thing.”

Trump’s father, Fred lived to 93 and his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod to 88. At the end of a hypothetical second term, Trump would be 82.

Polls have pegged widespread unease about Biden’s age. At 80, he is already the oldest president in US history and would be 86 by the conclusion of a second hypothetical term.

Trump previously conveyed a similar sentiment about age during an interview with Megyn Kelly on her SiriusXM program.

“So many people, they were phenomenal in their 80s. There’s a great wisdom if you’re not in a position like him. But if you go back 25 years, he wasn’t in the sharpest tack either,” he said.

Both Trump and Biden remain the undisputed frontrunners in their respective contests to be their party’s standard bearer.