Jasmine Crockett Accepts Trump’s Challenge to Take His ‘IQ Test,’ Then Studies by Identifying Picture of Elephant

NEED TO KNOW

• During the Oct. 29 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett accepted President Donald Trump’s challenge of taking what he described as an IQ test

• The test, which he bragged about getting a perfect score on, is believed to be the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which is used to help diagnose dementia

• Crockett said that she was “absolutely” willing to take the test live on air, competing in what host Kimmel dubbed the James C. Kimmel Cognitive Aptitude and Mental Brilliance Invitational

Jasmine Crockett is up for the challenge of taking President Donald Trump‘s dementia screening test, which he seemingly confused with an IQ test.

On Wednesday, Oct. 29, the Democratic congresswoman and lawyer, 44, from Texas appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! where she reacted to the president’s challenge, which he made while speaking to reporters on Air Force One earlier this week.

Host Jimmy Kimmel introduced the idea of showing them take the test live on air, saying, “Not only do I want to see this contest happen, I want to make it happen.”

“I believe this would be a once-in-a-lifetime television event. I want to give our brilliant, bigly brained president a chance to teach those leftwing lightweights a thing or two about brain power live on national television,” he continued, introducing the James C. Kimmel Cognitive Aptitude and Mental Brilliance Invitational.

Kimmel said that he “already invited the president,” joking that he was “sure he’ll accept.” He then introduced the audience to Crockett, who called in for the segment.

“I assume you are aware of the fact that the president, for whatever reason, has challenged you to a duel of the medulla,” Kimmel asked the politician after introducing her as “an outspoken critic of the Trump administration” and the person who “coined the phrase ‘bleach blonde bad built butch body.’ “

Crockett confirmed that she was “very well aware” of Trump, 79, challenging her to and fellow Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 36, to take the test after referring to them as “low IQ.”

“I know that he can’t seem to find himself in the Oval Office to make sure that he can end this shutdown, but he does have time to troll me. So listen, if he’s down, I’m down,” she quipped.

To see if she was up for the exam, Kimmel asked Crockett “a few questions of the sort that Trump got on his cognitive assessment test.” They included identifying a photo of an elephant and repeating a string of words.

“Wow you’re going to crush this,” he said after Crockett correctly answered the sample questions. “Are you at all worried about going up against a man who founded his own fraudulent university? I mean this is not just any guy.”

Crockett assured him that she had no concerns. In fact, she said that “absolutely accept[ed]” Trump’s challenge. When presented with three options for where the face-off would take place, she chose “the hole that used to be the White House.”

She added that she was “absolutely” open to a “sit-up contest” if she and Trump were to tie on the aptitude test. “I don’t know that he can sit-up,” she quipped, implying the tie-breaker would go in her favor.

Asked if she noticed any trend in Trump’s demeaning comments, including referring to people as “low IQ,” Crockett said, “They tend to be women, and they tend to be women of color.”

Kimmel’s segment during his opening monologue came after Trump slammed both Crockett and Ocasio-Cortez as being “low IQ” on Monday, Oct. 27.

He said that he had taken an “IQ test” at Walter Reed Medical Center and implied that the women would not be able to complete the test, which he said he had “decided to take” and described as “very hard.”

“They’re really aptitude tests, I guess, in a certain way, but they’re cognitive tests. Let AOC go against Trump,” he challenged.

Trump continued, saying, “Let Jasmine go against Trump. I don’t think Jasmine … The first couple questions are easy: a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe, you know. When you get up to about five or six and then when you get up to 10 and 20 and 25, they couldn’t come close to answering any of those questions.”

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It is believed that Trump was equating the Montreal Cognitive Assessment to an “aptitude” or IQ test. However, the test is actually meant to reveal signs of dementia.

Speaking to NBC News in July 2020, Canadian neurologist Dr. Ziad Nasreddine, who created the MoCA test in 1996, said that the test should not be used as a reflection of someone’s intelligence.

“There are no studies showing that this test is correlated to IQ tests,” he shared. “The purpose of it was not to determine persons who have a low IQ level. So we cannot say that this test reflects somebody’s IQ.”

Trump first bragged about getting a “perfect” score on the test in 2018, PEOPLE previously reported. In 2020, former Fox News host Chris Wallace told the president that he had taken the test as well and thought that it was “not the hardest.”

The president’s physician revealed in an April 2025 memo that Trump had taken the test again during an annual physical. It was reported that he answered all 30 questions correctly again.

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