7 stories to know: Trump loses it, elephants have names, and flying cars—really

“7 stories to know” is a new Monday series showcasing stories that may have been ignored in the crush of news over the past few weeks, and stories that have continued to evolve over the weekend. Expect to read coverage about health, science, and climate that frequently take second chair to what’s happening at the top of the page, plus information from local sources that the national media may have overlooked.

1. Donald Trump challenges Joe Biden to a cognitive test, then forgets his own doctor’s name

Donald Trump challenged President Joe Biden to take a cognitive test on Saturday night, saying that he had “aced” such a test. Then, one sentence later, Trump forgot the name of the White House doctor who administered the test.

“I think [Biden] should take a cognitive test like I did,” Trump told the audience at the Turning Point Action convention in Detroit. “I took a cognitive test and I aced it. Doc Ronny. Doc Ronny Johnson. Does everyone know Ronny Johnson, congressman from Texas? He was the White House doctor, and he said I was the healthiest president, he feels, in history, so I liked him very much indeed immediately.”

It’s a fair bet that the answer to Trump’s question is “no.” No one knows Ronny Johnson. Because the person he is referring to is Rep. Ronny Jackson, who was a doctor in Trump’s pill-pushing White House. 

Based on how often he mentions it, nothing makes Trump prouder than the results of the cognitive fitness test Jackson administered to him in 2018. That test, which gifted the world with the immortal phrase, “person, woman, man, camera, TV,” was not what Trump seems to believe it was. As The Washington Post explained in 2020:

Experts say the president’s fixation on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment—or MoCA, as it is sometimes called—is particularly puzzling because the test is normally administered only if someone is concerned that they or their loved ones may be experiencing dementia or other cognitive decline. Getting a perfect score—as Trump has repeatedly claimed he did—merely signifies that the test-taker probably does not have a cognitive impairment as measured by the exam.

Since Trump is still referring to “a test” administered to him by “Dr. Ronny Johnson,” it seems likely he hasn’t taken any other test since then. So Trump is citing a test that he took six years ago to screen for dementia as proof that he‘s a smart guy.

Biden certainly knows what inflation means. But Trump doesn’t know the meaning of the test he took, or the name of the man who gave it to him. 

And the man who said that Trump’s test was “perfect” way back then was the same doctor who, in the same exam, adjusted Trump’s height and weight just enough to keep Trump from being classified as obese. 

Asked how someone with Trump's diet and no known exercise routine could achieve such relatively strong physical results, Jackson said there was no definite answer.

"It is called genetics. I don't know," Jackson said. "Some people have just great genes. I told the president that if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old. I don't know."

The same doctor who said Trump could live to be 200 and fudged the numbers to make his physical health seem better reported his “perfect” score on a cognitive screening test. That makes it difficult to accept the reliability of these results from six years ago.

There are mounds of evidence that Trump has declined significantly since the time of that test. Even stories that Trump has told for months at his rallies have recently disintegrated into gibberish. His appearance before Republicans on Capitol Hill last week turned to Trump daydreaming about both Taylor Swift and Nancy Pelosi. A later meeting with CEOs confirmed that Trump was “remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map,”

Before Biden agrees to anything, at least one reporter should pin Trump down on exactly what kind of test he took, and whether he’s taken another in the last six years.