What to Know
Remember when President Donald Trump said he took three cognitive tests and “aced every single one of them?” Well, now he’s saying his ability to answer the questions is because he drinks milk. Trump made the comment during an Oval Office event during which he signed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act.
Previously, NBC News reported that the cognitive assessments Trump has boasted about are meant to detect mild signs of cognitive impairment or early dementia. They do not measure intelligence. Nonetheless, Trump seems to see his success as a real accomplishment — and a sign that people should be drinking whole milk, apparently.
Trump mentioned these tests at the Oval Office event.
As national nutrition advisor Ben Carson spoke about the impact milk consumption has on brain development, Trump chimed in with, “So milk would help your cognitive ability?” Carson responded with, “Absolutely!” Trump then bragged about the number of cognitive tests he’s taken. “I’ve taken a lot of them,” he said. “I’ve aced every one of them because I drink milk.”
On social media, people weren’t so sure that he should be bragging about this. “I wouldn’t be bragging about taking a lot of cognitive tests,” one person wrote on X. Someone else said, “Trump took an exam for dementia – thinking that’s an intelligence test certainly tells us SOMETHING about the President’s intelligence, though.”
Trump: Milk would help your cognitive abilities?
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 14, 2026
Carson: Absolutely. You can tell who has been drinking milk.
Trump: I took a cognitive test—I’ve taken a lot of them. I've aced all of them because I drink milk. pic.twitter.com/4m2KJELiVU
Others aren’t convinced Trump actually drinks milk anyway.
After all, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently called Trump’s diet “unhinged” and said he’s surprised he’s still alive. “The interesting thing about the president is that he eats really bad food, which is McDonald’s, and, you know, candy and Diet Coke,” RFK Jr. said on the Katie Miller Podcast. “He drinks Diet Coke at all times.”
So, when Trump bragged that he’s “aced” his cognitive tests because he drinks milk, people on social media were skeptical. “And by ‘milk,’ he means Diet Coke,” one person concluded.
People also suspect that Trump didn’t know how to spell whole milk.
Another comment Trump made during the Oval Office event has gone viral. For some reason, he specified that whole milk is spelled with a W. And everyone’s wondering why that needed to be explained.
“It’s actually a legal definition: ‘whole milk.’ And it’s whole with a W for those of you that have a problem,” Trump said. Um, what?
Trump: "It's actually a legal definition — 'whole milk.' And it's whole with a W for those of you that have a problem." pic.twitter.com/KaVSUC5FS2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 14, 2026
On X, people tried to make sense of the comment. “How much do you want to bet HE didn’t know it started with a w…” one person suggested. Someone else wrote, “That tells me he’s written it ‘hole milk’ and been corrected.”
As some pointed out, Trump managed to seem like both a toddler and a “nasty old man” at the same time. “Someone take grandpa back to his room. He is embarrassing himself,” another critic wrote in response.
And while he was trying to make the point that milk has helped him “ace” his cognitive tests, people aren’t so convinced after hearing him talk about how whole milk is spelled. “Time for another cognitive test,” someone else concluded.
