President Donald Trump wants everyone to believe he’s the smartest man in Washington.
On Wednesday, he challenged two sitting members of Congress to take IQ tests, boasting that he’d come out on top—but the remarks quickly backfired when Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett clapped back on Trump’s questionable academic record.
While preparing to depart the White House for an AI summit in Pittsburgh, Trump told reporters Tuesday that he wants to administer IQ tests to Crockett, 44, and New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 35—who are both Trump’s most outspoken critics on Capitol Hill.
“AOC, look, I think she’s very nice. But she’s very low-IQ, and we really don’t need low-IQ,” Trump said. “Between her and Crockett, we’re going to give them both an IQ test to see who comes out best.”
Despite his bluster, the 79-year-old commander in chief has no power to mandate IQ tests for sitting members of Congress, and the presidency does not hold power over elected lawmakers from a coequal branch of government. As president, Trump couldn’t order Ocasio-Cortez or Crockett to take an IQ test any more than they could order him to tell the truth.
Still, the hypothetical that Trump might be smarter than, well, anybody lingered like a punchline.
“Now, I took my test. I took a real test at Walter Reed Medical Center, and I aced it,” Trump continued. “I got every one of all those questions right. Now it’s time for them to take a test,” Trump added, referring to the cognitive screening he took in April.
That test, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), is commonly used to flag early signs of dementia—not to measure intelligence. It includes tasks like drawing a clock or distinguishing a camel from a lion, not logic and reasoning skills typical of a real IQ test.
Despite repeatedly boasting that his IQ is “one of the highest,” Trump has never released his official scores. His former attorney, Michael Cohen, testified in 2019 that Trump once ordered him to threaten his alma maters—including Fordham University and the University of Pennsylvania—if they disclosed his grades or SAT scores.
“I’m talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges and the College Board to never release his grades or SAT scores,” Cohen told Congress, submitting copies of letters he wrote on Trump’s behalf.
Even Trump’s late sister, retired federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry, reportedly told relatives that he had someone else take the SAT for him—a claim that surfaced in niece Mary Trump’s 2020 book “Too Much and Never Enough.”
Despite his efforts to hide his own academic record, Trump has frequently hurled “low-IQ” as an insult at political rivals, but especially toward women of color. Back in March, he called Crockett “a lowlife” and “a very low-IQ person.”
This time, Crockett didn’t let the disrespect slide. Appearing on CNN’s Laura Coates Live, she dismantled Trump in a stinging rebuke.
“Um, it is absolutely ridiculous that I live rent-free in his mind in a time in which the American people are suffering,” Crockett said. “He absolutely consistently buys into this idea or continues to put it out there that women of color somehow are low IQ. Let me be clear. I have a lot more education than he does. This is just what it is degree wise. I have earned my degrees. My daddy didn’t have to make a phone call to get me into anything because that wasn’t a possibility. Okay, so we can stop playing games as if I am somehow lesser than.”
Crockett holds a law degree and is a licensed attorney. Ocasio-Cortez graduated cum laude from Boston University with dual degrees in economics and international relations.
Social media users quickly came to the congresswomen’s defense, slamming Trump for questioning their intelligence.
“AOC graduated cum laude with dual-degrees in economics and international relations,” one commenter posted on X in response to video footage of Trump shared by journalist Aaron Rupar. “Crockett has a law degree and passed the bar. Calling them low IQ is laughable.”
Another user dared Trump to go head-to-head in an IQ contest. “Please please please have both AOC and Donald Trump take the same IQ test, and please please please release the results. I will make a bet with anyone that AOC scores higher.”
Trump’s own academic records remain sealed and have yet to surface, even as his legislative agenda wages an aggressive “war on academia.” In Trump’s second term, that battle has zeroed in on Ivy League institutions—including the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater.
In March, the Trump administration moved to suspend $175 million in federal funding to Penn, citing the school’s policy of allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports. But the targeting of Ivy League schools reflects a broader conservative backlash against higher education, fueled by complaints over diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, rising tuition costs, and the perceived liberal tilt of college faculty.
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