Fact Check: Is the claim that Donald Trump has an IQ of 73 in a viral X post true?

WASHINGTON, DC: A viral X post has reignited debate by sharing an image that compares the IQs of recent US presidents, including Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton. The claim has gained traction following Trump’s return to the White House after the 2024 election. It also fed into ongoing debates about his leadership style, which supporters describe as driven by instinct and deal-making, while critics argue that it reflects a lack of intellectual depth.

Claim: An image claimed Trump’s IQ was 73

An X post featured an image comparing the IQs of recent US presidents, Joe Biden (150), Donald Trump (73), Barack Obama (155), and Bill Clinton (156), and asked Grok to verify the claim. The origin of the image remained unclear, but the user captioned it, “Hey @grok, U.S. President IQ Comparison - is this true ?"

At the time, the post revived familiar lines of criticism from Trump’s first term and the Biden years, when critics frequently questioned his intellectual fitness.

Claims that Trump had an IQ of 73 were not new; similar rumors had circulated widely in 2019. Those claims were based on a purported document and a newspaper-style clipping alleging that Trump scored 73 on an IQ test during his time at the New York Military Academy.

Fact Check: The image showing Trump’s IQ is fake

The claim shown in the viral image, assigning IQ scores of 150 to Joe Biden, 73 to Donald Trump, 155 to Barack Obama, and 156 to Bill Clinton, was false and entirely fabricated. No US president has publicly released verified IQ test results, and the specific figures cited in the image had no credible source. The claim stemmed from a long-circulating hoax, including a fake 2019 'newspaper clipping' alleging the discovery of a document from Trump’s time at the New York Military Academy.

There was no verified evidence supporting any of the numbers presented. Unofficial estimates of Trump’s IQ, based on academic and professional background, have typically placed him in a broad and speculative range, often cited around 110–130, while extreme claims, both high and low, have been widely debunked. Similarly, Biden has never released any IQ test results.

Claims about Obama’s IQ, such as the widely shared figure of 155, were also unverified. Informal assessments based on his academic achievements, including his time at Harvard Law School and leadership of the Harvard Law Review, generally placed him in a lower, though still above-average, estimated range. The figure cited in the viral image was inflated and unsupported.

The claim about Clinton’s IQ was likewise unsubstantiated. Some academic estimates, such as those from historiometric studies, suggested a high intelligence level, but no official test results existed, and the specific number cited in the image was not documented.

Therefore, the image represented partisan meme content rather than factual data. Claims assigning precise IQ scores to US presidents should be treated with skepticism, as no verified test results have been publicly released.