California Gov. Gavin Newsom took a fresh swipe at President Donald Trump’s mental fitness on Monday, suggesting that the president’s doctors may have their own concerns.
Newsom seized on Trump’s admission Sunday evening that he’d taken an aptitude test under a doctor’s direction.
“Most people don’t take that many cognitive tests unless a doctor is worried,” Newsom wrote on X.
On Air Force One, the president, 79, challenged Democratic congresswomen Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to a cognitive exam. Then, he admitted he recently took one—and struggled.
“Have [Ocasio-Cortez] pass the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed,” he said. “Those are very hard—they’re really aptitude tests, I guess, in a certain way, but they’re cognitive tests. Let AOC go against Trump. Let Jasmine go against Trump.”
The cognitive test Trump is referring to asks respondents to draw a clock, identify pictures of animals, and repeat a list of five words. According to its creators, the exam is designed to detect mild cognitive impairment as early as possible—not to measure intelligence or IQ.
Most people don’t take that many cognitive tests unless a doctor is worried. https://t.co/gFOs0YzZQl
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) October 27, 2025
The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Newsom’s warning followed a jab at the president’s health earlier in the day.
While in Malaysia on Sunday, Trump shared a Truth Social post at 4 a.m. local time offering a series of ill-advised—and in some cases, medically impossible—suggestions about pain relievers and vaccine schedules for pregnant women and children.
“Pregnant Women, DON’T USE TYLENOL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, DON’T GIVE TYLENOL TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON, BREAK UP THE MMR SHOT INTO THREE TOTALLY SEPARATE SHOTS (NOT MIXED!), TAKE CHICKEN P SHOT SEPARATELY, TAKE HEPATITAS B SHOT AT 12 YEARS OLD, OR OLDER, AND, IMPORTANTLY, TAKE VACCINE IN 5 SEPARATE MEDICAL VISITS! President DJT,” he wrote.
In response, Newsom posted an unflattering photo of Trump removing his jacket during a campaign stop at McDonald’s last year.
“Won’t be taking medical advice from someone who can’t spell hepatitis and looks like this,” he wrote.
Won’t be taking medical advice from someone who can’t spell hepatitis and looks like this: https://t.co/YzfukZtlNk pic.twitter.com/giH8VeyoDK
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 27, 2025
Also this month, Newsom said at a press conference that Trump was in “decline, cognitively.”
“He seems, dare I say, in decline cognitively. And dare I say, forgive me [it’s] perhaps unfair, physically. And these are just rantings of someone that needs an intervention, needs some help, needs to be stabilized, dare I say,” Newsom said at the time.
The governor’s comments come amid growing skepticism about Trump’s cognitive state.
Speaking to reporters, the president on Sunday acknowledged that the early questions on the test were simple—but insisted the later ones were much harder.
“The first couple of questions are easy—a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe, you know,” he said. “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.”
For context: The average toddler can identify pictures of common animals, and most children learn to read an analog clock around age six or seven, according to The New York Times.
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