Let’s check: Mensa offers IQ test for Trump and Tillerson

The high-IQ society Mensa said it would be willing to host President Donald Trump and secretary of state Rex Tillerson in an IQ test, following the widespread outrage over a joke Trump made in a recent interview.

“American Mensa would be happy to hold a testing session for President Trump and Secretary Tillerson,” Charles Brown, the group’s communications director, told The Hill.

Mensa is a non profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standard, supervised intelligence test.

“It’s important to note that our admissions test is not the sole way to qualify for Mensa ‒ there are hundreds of other prior-evidence tests that can qualify a member,” Brown said. “And the early success of many presidents no doubt exposed them to those types of qualifying avenues.”

Brown cited former President Clinton’s experience as a Rhodes Scholar, Jimmy Carter’s work as a nuclear engineer, and George H.W. Bush’s time as a military pilot.

“Each could have encountered standardized academic tests (LSAT, GMAT, Miller Analogies), where qualifying scores would have propelled them into Mensa,” he told the Hill.

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‘Have to compare IQ tests’: Trump ups ante in Tillerson ‘moron’ row

In an interview with Forbes published Tuesday, Trump quipped he could go head-to-head in an IQ showdown with Tillerson, commenting on last week’s NBC News story ‒ denounced as false by both the State Department and the White House ‒ about Tillerson calling him a “moron” in a meeting with other government officials.

“I think it’s fake news,” Trump told the magazine, “but if he did [say] that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell who is going to win.”

During a press briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had “made a joke” when referring to the IQ challenge. The president  “has full confidence in the secretary of state,” she said, adding that the White House press corps should “get a sense of humor.”

Last week, NBC reported that Tillerson had disparaged Trump following a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon with members of Trump’s national security team and Cabinet officials, citing three unnamed officials familiar with the incident. It was alleged that Vice President Mike Pence had to convince Tillerson to stay on the job.

The report was “categorically false," said Pence’s spokesman.

“I have never considered leaving this post,” Tillerson said on October 4, dismissing the NBC report as “erroneous” and “petty nonsense.”