I said the other day that the “Fire and Fury” book has lowered expectations about Donald Trump:

When you read of the dysfunction and chaos in his White House, it then comes as a pleasant surprise when you hear Donald Trump stringing a basic, reasonably coherent sentence together without falling over the furniture and dribbling.

Well, this week the results of Trump’s annual medical tests were released. There seems to be considerable relief that his tests, at least according to the lead medic, Dr Ronny Jackson, gave good results. As far as Mr Trump’s cognitive abilities are concerned, Dr Jackson said:

The president is mentally very sharp, very intact.

Trump himself has got in on the act, boasting of his mental accuity. In an interview with Reuters, he blamed his three immediate predecessors for failing to resolve the North Korea crisis, saying:

I guess they all realized they were going to have to leave it to a president that scored the highest on tests.

Well, this is where the lowered expectations come in. Trump scored 30/30 on something called the “Montreal Cognitive Assessment” or “MoCA”. He “aced” this test.

But now you need to actually look through what is in the actual test itself. For example, see the image above. Name those three animals. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure MoCA is an excellent test for dealing with patients who might be suffering from dementia or cognitive deterioration. It is a serious and very widely used medical test.

But three dimensional chess it ain’t.

Here’s another of its questions:

Draw a clock showing ten past eleven.

It perhaps speaks volumes that the bar has been lowered so low, that some are rejoicing that the President is able to answer such basic questions.

* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.