As Secret Service agents quickly worked to treat the gunshot wound to Donald Trump‘s ear in the a mess aftermath of the July 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, the president made a typical Trumpian request: a brain scan.
And the actual picture, or “film,” as he called it, instead of just the scan.
Trump told medical staff that a CT scan was “like an IQ test,” adding, “They tell you that your brain is good, so I just want to have that,” according to a Washington Post excerpt from the book 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America. He insisted, “I want the film,” after being told that the facility no longer uses film and only gives a written report.
According to the authors, Susie Wiles, the campaign co-chair, eventually got the scan image and folded it away in her bag. Donald Trump, who was still recovering and moving through the hospital corridors at the time, maintained the reasons for wanting it: It was proof that his brain worked and, in his opinion, served as a validation of his brilliant mind.
Donald Trump’s Longstanding Obsession with IQ
Trump’s peculiar request at the hospital was not entirely unanticipated. It was probably the most recent in the president’s decades-long obsession with intelligence, especially IQ as the gold standard of value. Donald Trump said on Twitter as early as 2013, “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest (…) Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault.”
He frequently hyped up contestants’ “close to 200 IQs” while he was on The Apprentice. In the White House, he referred to opponents (from Robert De Niro to Joe Biden) as having “low IQs” and allies as “geniuses.”
This evidence is still being authenticated. While at N.Y. Military Academy, Trump took an IQ test with a score of 73. The AVERAGE person has a score of 100. Trump is on the border between low IQ and VERY low IQ. pic.twitter.com/WSwBIytSAU
— Dr. Robert Fortuna (@psychdr100) May 6, 2019
A 2019 Politico article claims that Trump often mocked alleged opposition while gloating about the intelligence of CEOs like Tim Cook and Marillyn Hewson of Lockheed Martin. He even used Ivy League credentials to screen his Supreme Court hopefuls.
Barbara Res, a longtime executive with the Trump Organization, told Politico that the obsession dates back decades: “He always used to say that he had a very high IQ.” Trump favored “smart” people, mainly those with esteemed academic backgrounds.
Why a Brain Scan?
Experts quickly explained that CT scans, which detect tumors or brain hemorrhages, are not indicators of intelligence. This is verified by Johns Hopkins Medicine, which also points out that MRI scans cannot measure IQ, even though they have been associated with brain activity related to cognition. However, it seems like Trump saw this image as a metaphor.
Both Trump and then-President Joe Biden were being examined closely for their age and mental state at the time of the shooting. Ex Vice President Kamala Harris took Biden’s place after he pulled out of the race a week later. Even after winning the election, Trump continues to be grilled about his intellect, which may have contributed to his need to show off the scan.
“I have a nice high IQ. We like high IQ people. That’s why they have this hat.” – Trump
Points at Gulf of America hat.
🫵🤡
— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) July 1, 2025
“Measuring someone’s intelligence is not simply a matter of taking one test with a sharpened No. 2 pencil. Donald Trump (…) still [thinks] in terms of that No. 2 pencil,” said biographer Gwenda Blair, referencing outdated IQ tests as Trump’s intellectual gold standard. Trump has never revealed his IQ or academic records, even though he frequently boasts of them.
The president even told Michael Cohen, his former fixer, to threaten testing agencies and schools to keep the information confidential, Cohen told Congress. In 2019, Cohen noted, “[He] directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges and the College Board to never release his grades or SAT scores.”
