Democrats are demanding that President Donald Trump submit to a cognitive test and then release the results publicly while warning about the 79-year-old’s mental decline.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin sent a letter to White House physician Dr. Sean Barbabella urging him to conduct the screening and release the results by April 24.
Raskin wrote, “in recent days, the country has watched President Trump’s public statements and outbursts turn increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening.”
The Maryland lawmaker also called on Barbabella to make himself available to brief committee lawmakers under oath.
It comes after Trump threatened to wipe out civilization in Iran in a Truth Social post on Tuesday ahead of his deadline to reach a deal and demanded Iran “Open the F---in’ Strait, you crazy bastards,” or face “living in Hell” in an Easter Sunday post.
Trump has bragged on numerous occasions about taking a cognitive test since he returned to office, but the White House at times has been evasive when faced with questions about his health.
Democrats are in the minority, so the letter carries no weight at this time, but it does indicate an ongoing battle the White House may face should Democrats retake the majority in the House come November.
In his letter, Raskin noted that former Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has since become a fierce critic of the president, has said Trump “has gone insane.”
“His apparently deteriorating condition has caused tremendous alarm across the nation (and political spectrum) about the President’s cognitive function and continuing mental fitness for the office of President, and prompted concerns about the President’s wellbeing,” Raskin wrote.
The top House Democrat argued that the American people need to be able to trust that Trump has the mental capacity to carry out his duties, especially in a time of war, when the president was the one who launched the attacks.
It comes after Republicans, including Trump and his top allies, repeatedly went after President Joe Biden and accused him of cognitive decline on the 2024 campaign trail.
In response to the Daily Beast inquiry on whether the president would be willing to meet any of the demands, the White House slammed Raskin but did not address the request.
“Lightweight Jamie Raskin is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person,” said spokesperson Davis Ingle. “President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the past four years when Democrats like Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people.”
However, Raskin mentioned the GOP investigation into Biden in his letter, writing that House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer called Biden’s mental acuity “one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history,” while House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan also accused Biden of not being fit for office.
“I trust that both Chairmen will stand by this important principle today with the country in an uproar over the President’s recent fulminations and mad threats,” Raskin wrote.
Apart from Trump’s series of social media threats against Iran, the lawmaker also listed the president’s ramblings about the Iran war and bragging to children at the Easter Egg Roll on Monday as examples that raise concerns.
He even noted the president’s physical health, with the observation of Trump, “descending the White House steps with labored physical difficulty, gripping the First Lady for support, and displaying visible dark bruising on his right hand.”
The White House has repeatedly claimed the bruising on Trump’s hand was due to constant handshaking while taking aspirin, but bruising has also been spotted on his left hand as well since he returned to office.
Last October, Trump told reporters after a visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that he had an MRI but could not explain what for. For months, the White House fielded questions but did not explain why the president received advanced imaging or on what part of the body it was for.
Finally, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal released on January 1, Trump and his doctor revealed the president had not, in fact, received an MRI but a CT scan. Barbabella said in a statement to the WSJ it was done to “to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues.”
The president also bragged in a January 2 social media post that he had “ACED” a third straight cognitive exam and was in “PERFECT HEALTH.”
“I strongly believe that anyone running for President, or Vice President, should be mandatorily forced to take a strong, meaningful, and proven Cognitive Examination,” Trump wrote at the time.
He touted taking three cognitive tests again at his March Cabinet meeting. But X users were quick to point out that the president wrongly equated taking the Montreal Cognitive Assessment to an IQ or aptitude test.
