Trump's I. Q. score
Executive summary
No verifiable, official IQ score for Donald J. Trump has ever been released to the public; persistent one-off claims (notably that he scored 73 on a youth IQ test) have been debunked by established fact‑checkers, while Trump’s own references to tests are often mischaracterizations of cognitive screenings rather than formal IQ assessments [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. The simple answer: there is no confirmed numeric IQ
None of the credible reporting in the record produces an authenticated, contemporaneous IQ score for Donald Trump; repeated social‑media graphics and viral claims — including the widely circulated assertion that an NYMA (New York Military Academy) test showed a score of 73 — have been examined and rejected for lack of verifiable evidence by Full Fact and Snopes, which conclude there is no proof such a score exists or was discovered [1] [2].
2. How false or shaky IQ claims spread and why they persist
The story of a discovered IQ sheet has mutated into many versions online, with fact‑checkers tracing the rumor’s variants and noting contradictions in sources, test names, and even the alleged revealer; media fact‑checks show the rumor originated and proliferated in contexts that warned readers about inaccuracy and was amplified without primary documentation [3] [2].
3. Trump’s own references: cognitive screens, not IQ tests
Public references from Trump and his doctors about “tests” are often about the MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment), a dementia‑screening instrument, not an IQ battery; reporting notes that Trump’s physician reported perfect MoCA scores, but creators and neurologists emphasize the MoCA was designed to detect cognitive impairment, not to measure intelligence quotient, and there is no validated conversion from a MoCA score to an IQ in either direction [4] [5].
4. Why conflating MoCA and IQ is misleading
Medical and cognitive‑testing experts quoted in multiple outlets make clear the MoCA’s purpose is screening for mild cognitive impairment and dementia; while some statistical correlations exist between cognitive screening results and measures of intellectual functioning, the MoCA was not developed as an IQ test and should not be interpreted as one, a distinction repeatedly underscored in the reporting [4] [5].
5. The limits of using IQ as a political tool
Scholars and journalists have long warned that public arguments about presidents’ IQs are more rhetorical than scientific; analyses of presidential “intelligence” suggest IQ estimates are noisy, context dependent, and of limited value for assessing leadership performance, which has led psychologists and historians to caution against treating contested numerical claims as meaningful predictors of governance [6] [7].
6. Perception, politics and the audience view of intelligence
Polls and public perceptions diverge sharply from verified testing: surveys that ask Americans to rate public figures’ intelligence produce partisan patterns and low‑reliability impressions rather than measured cognitive scores — for example, perception studies show Trump is a polarizing figure whose perceived IQ varies widely by political affiliation, underscoring that “IQ” in public debate often functions as a political label [8].
7. Bottom line and what is unknown
The documented record supports two incontrovertible points: there is no authenticated, public IQ score for Trump, and several viral numeric claims have been fact‑checked and found to lack evidence [1] [2]. Beyond that, available sources do not supply a legitimate, peer‑verified IQ measure for Trump, and cognitive screening results reported by his physicians cannot be validly translated into an IQ figure based on current reporting [4] [5]. Any attempt to assign a precise IQ number therefore rests on rumor, inference, or improper conversion rather than confirmed testing.