Yahoo News Fact Check: Trump Did Not Score 73 on IQ Test
Claim:
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump scored 73 on an IQ test while at the New York Military Academy.
Rating:
The IQ of President-elect Donald Trump was a topic of discussion well before he ran for office, with Trump himself declaring: "I know some of you may think l'm tough and harsh but actually I'm a very compassionate person (with a very high IQ) with strong common sense" on X (archived) in April 2013.
I know some of you may think l'm tough and harsh but actually I'm a very compassionate person (with a very high IQ) with strong common sense
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2013
In late 2024, a claim to the contrary — that Trump tested well below average on an IQ test while attending the New York Military Academy — circulated online. Two (archived) posts (archived) from December repeating the claim combined for more than 900,000 views on X.
Whoever voted for this clown who can only pick TV personalities for cabinet positions because he’s so ignorant and doesn’t read! What do you fools expect from a man with an IQ of 73 pic.twitter.com/19yP8EanFa
— Amore ☮️ & 💟 2012 - 2021 (@angiespizelles) December 5, 2024
The text in the image tells the story of a man, William Askew Jr., who purportedly found the test results while cleaning out the apartment belonging to his late father, who allegedly worked at the academy:
Trump IQ test results discovered in former NYMA employee's closet
The result: 73
The results of an IQ test that President Donald Trump allegedly took during his first year at New York Military Academy have been discovered in a file box in a closet in Brooklyn. According to the test results, Trump's IQ is 73.
The document, currently in the process of being authenticated, was discovered Thursday by William Askew, Jr. as he was cleaning out his late father's apartment.
"Dad was the school counselor at NYMA from 1955 to 1985. He didn't administer these tests, but he was in charge of collecting them and sending them to the grading office," said Askew.
Askew produced additional documents and photographs that confirm his father was indeed employed as school counselor at NYMA at the same time Trump attended the military prep school.
"I don't think this should be news to anybody," said Askew. "The guy's clearly a total moron."
However, the image that appeared to be the source of this claim is fake, as a Snopes fact check found in 2019.
In our updated research, Snopes has found no credible reports of Trump having an IQ score of 73 in newspapers and other archives. We also didn't find credible reports of any publicly reported IQ test results for the president-elect since our 2019 fact-check was published.
'Newspaper Article' Uses Miscaptioned Photos
The rumor appeared to have originated from an image styled to look like a newspaper article which Snopes first saw posted (archived) on May 6, 2019. We have yet to determine who created the image.
Snopes found no credible reports on Newspapers.com or Google with the headline seen in the image.
The photos in the image were sourced online from authentic images but those captioned "Askew today and his late father at work at NYMA" are miscaptioned.
The left photo, allegedly of the younger Askew, is an Adobe Stock photo, while the right photo, purportedly of his father, shows Lawrence Hanson, principal of North Dakota's Grand Forks Central High School, in 1950.
NYMA '66 Graduate Does Not Recall IQ Tests or 'William Askew'
In addition to the miscaptioned photos, a former student of NYMA whose attendance overlapped with Trump's told Snopes he did not recall IQ tests being carried out during his time at the school.
"The only testing criteria I remember was kind of an SAT for admittance to a prep school that I took prior to applying. This did not occur at NYMA, but at another venue, and was part of my application process," Jack Serafin, of the class of 1966, said.
Serafin attended NYMA from 1962 to 1967, staying an extra year to improve his test scores, and remained in contact with the school afterwards.
"My mother was on the nursing staff for about three years after I left, so I remained close to the academy and staff, I have no recollection of a 'William Askew' during that time period. He is not listed in my yearbooks as being involved," Serafin said of the school counselor named in the article.
We have reached out to the academy to ask about the validity of Trump's alleged test result and whether the school gave IQ tests to students while Trump was in attendance.
In December 2019, Snopes found an infographic claiming Trump had an IQ of 156 to be fake.
Snopes' archives contributed to this report.
Sources:
"_1950s Slideshow." Google Docs, https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Vo2xT2Z0R4MTuuSWf_gsaEwzehey4fykCEG-3hSB8Lg/pub?start=true&loop=true&delayms=10000&slide=id.g13cc1a9afe_0_14&usp=embed_facebook. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.
@angiespizelles. "Whoever Voted for This Clown Who Can Only Pick TV Personalities for Cabinet Positions Because He's so Ignorant and Doesn't Read! What Do You Fools Expect from a Man with an IQ of 73." X.Com, X, 5 Dec. 2024, https://x.com/angiespizelles/status/1864651196100657469.
"'donald Trump's IQ' - Search - Newspapers.Com™." Newspapers.Com, https://www.newspapers.com/search/results/?feature-rs=true&keyword=%22donald+trump%27s+IQ%22. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.
Evon, Dan. "Was Donald Trump's IQ Measured at 73?" Snopes, 6 May 2019, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/donald-trump-nyma-iq/.
Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine. https://archive.org/search?query=%22donald+trump%22+AND+IQ. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.
@KellDA. "So Trump's IQ Is 73. That Is Spot on. I Have Administered Countless IQ Tests and That F***er Has about a 4th Grade Level Vocabulary and No Critical Thinking Skills as Well as Word Finding Issues. It Was on My Bingo Card and Now I Have a Blackout." X.Com, X, 5 Dec. 2024, https://x.com/KellDA/status/1864490940133503027.
"Portriat of an Elderly Man Stock Photo." Adobe Stock, https://stock.adobe.com/uk/images/portriat-of-an-elderly-man/88682240. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.
@psychdr100. "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." X.Com, X, 6 May 2019, https://x.com/psychdr100/status/1125433204322684928.
Trump IQ Test Results Discovered in Former NYMA Employee s Closet - Google Search. https://www.google.com/search?q=Trump+IQ+test+results+discovered+in+former+NYMA+employee+s+closet&sca_esv=360d606574466e04&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB1138GB1138&biw=1470&bih=712&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1%2F1%2F2000%2Ccd_max%3A5%2F6%2F2013&tbm=. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.
"'Trump IQ Test Results Discovered in Former NYMA Employee's Closet' - Search - Newspapers.Com™." Newspapers.Com, https://www.newspapers.com/search/results/?feature-rs=true&keyword=%22Trump+IQ+test+results+discovered+in+former+NYMA+employee%27s+closet%22. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.
"U.S. President Donald Trump Speaks While Delivering Remarks on His..." Getty Images, 15 Nov. 2017, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-speaks-while-delivering-remarks-on-news-photo/874651098.
