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Updated on Tuesday, Jan. 16: President Trump asked the White House physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, to perform a screening test for cognitive function during his medical exam last week — even though it is not a part of a standard physical for a 71-year old, Jackson told reporters at a White House news conference on Tuesday.

Jackson gave Trump the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and Trump scored a 30 out of 30. “The reason I did it, plain and simple, is the president asked me to do it,” Jackson said, adding that there is “no indication he has any cognitive issues” and “no reason to think the president has any issues whatsoever with his thought processes.”

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Jackson added, “I spend every day in the president’s presence. I see him two or three times a day. I’ve had absolutely no concern about his cognitive ability or cognitive function.”

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    • Pat Skerrett
      STAT

  • Like Trump said, “I can always speak for myself and the Russians – zero.” Am I clear in my communication; does that make sense to you? No, it doesn’t, does it. This is not a political issue. This is about the competency of an elected official.

    Yesterday. With members of Congress in a rare meeting with press and cameras present. It was intentionally staged as a response to the issue of mental health questions. It was planned and the president was prepared; not a ‘gotcha’ moment, not taken surprise.

    “Chain migration is bringing in many, many people with one, and often it doesn’t work out very well. Those many people are not doing us right.”

    • Those many people.

    “People — for instance, the man on the Westside Highway that killed the people and so badly wounded. You know, it’s incredible when they talk about wounded, they don’t say that arms are off, and legs are off, one person lost two legs. You know, nobody talks about it. They said eight died, but they don’t talk about the twelve people that have no legs, no arms, and all of the things. So I’m talking about everybody.”
    “I really believe that when you talk about — the subject that we’re all mentioning right now, I think they had — how many people came in? Twenty-two to twenty-four people came in through him.”

    He started with the phrase ‘chain migration’ and couldn’t remember it 45 seconds later. When he said “the subject we’re all mentioning right now,” he paused and looked down the table. Word choice was “mentioning” as opposed to ‘discussing’ or ‘talking about’.
    He followed with a confabulation — there is no basis of fact for the notion that the Uzbek jihadist brought 22-24 others. The Uzbek man entered the US through the Diversity Visa Lottery Program, which was also part of the discussion. I believe some part of the disjointed syntax and the appearance of going off-track is practiced compensation.

    Exchange about Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala:
    “We stopped them. You know why? Mexico told me, the President told me, everybody tells me — not as many people are coming through their southern border because they don’t think they can get through our southern border and therefore they don’t come. That’s what happened with Mexico. We did Mexico a tremendous favor.”
    “…the ICE officers and the Border Patrol agents — I had them just recently on — they say, if you don’t have the wall — you know, in certain areas, obviously, that aren’t protected by nature…”

    • He had them recently on what?

    “But, you know, you speak to the agents, and I spoke to all of them. I spoke — I lived with them. They endorsed me for President, which they’ve never done before — the Border Patrol agents and ICE. They both endorsed Trump. And they never did that before. And I have a great relationship with them.”

    • Trump lived with Border Patrol agents?

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-meeting-bipartisan-members-congress-immigration/

    • “The reason I did it, plain and simple, is the president asked me to do it,” Jackson said… Did he request this particular test by name? I do wonder if this guy with an MD after his name was born yesterday.

      I can envision that Trump would have someone find this test online and then go through it with him in advance. While the man is not the brightest bulb in the room but he is very smart when it comes to self-preservation –
      plotting, planning, lying and cover-ups. Evidence as presented by GC and others is pretty indicative of a some deficit although his short term memory in these settings could well be affected by stress.

      Before we jump to a dementia diagnosis in looking at short term memory problems we screen for 1) high levels of stress, 2) depression and 3) physiological impairments such as occluded cerebral arteries.

      Obvious defects in judgement may not indicate cognitive impairment, they are more likely a sign of his mental disorders which are obvious to all trained to observe such things. Both documented word choices and behaviors are diagnostic tools we can use to see the man’s inner turmoil.
      He’d just be a sad, rich fool were it not that he sits in the White House.

    • ” .. He’d just be a sad, rich fool were it not that he sits in the White House.”

      HRC would be under indictment for FOIA violations, if her goofy husband hadn’t been an accidental president.

  • It’s perplexing to realize that higher cognitive brain functions aren’t evaluated routinely during the annual medical assessments of U.S. Presidents. Liver? Yeah we test for that. Blood cell counts? Yeah, we test for them. But Presidents don’t get their jobs done without a brain that is in good order. Time to update the expectations!

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