U.S. President Donald Trump has aced a test on his mental health – likely putting to rest days of Washington political gossip. And one Arab-Canadian couldn’t be prouder.
The test that cleared Trump was developed by a doctor associated with McGill and Sherbrooke universities.
Ziad Nasreddine has just learned that the Montreal Cognitive Assessment he developed as a young neurologist two decades ago was used to assess the cognitive functions of one of the world’s most powerful people.
Nasreddine says he designed it as a way to quickly assess, within 10 or 12 minutes, whether someone has suffered light cognitive impairment or the onset of Alzheimer’s disease; he says it’s now been used in 200 countries in 60 languages.
Nasreddine says the exam doesn’t test for everything: it doesn’t examine judgment, or personality, and in certain cases, he says, it can be duped by an extremely educated subject.
But he’s uniquely proud of one thing, and he hopes the president draws lessons from it: This shows how immigrants, and Arabs, can make valuable contributions to American society. Nasreddine came to Canada as a teenager with his family during the civil war in his homeland, Lebanon.
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The White House doctor announced today that Trump was administered the Montreal cognitive test and aced it with a score of 30 on 30. Dr. Ronny Jackson, who also worked with the previous administration, says he speaks to the president daily and didn’t feel he even needed the test.
But he says the president asked for it.
Washington had been abuzz in recent days with details from a tell-all-style book suggesting everyone in Trump’s entourage questions his mental stability. Trump had responded by referring to himself as a “stable genius,” and requested the cognitive exam.
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