Viral divisions: Are you as smart as Donald Trump in math(s)?
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“Nobody should think he is ok, or think he might be ok, after watching this.” Donald Trump used a rally to dispel rumours surrounding his mental fitness, but a brag led to a percentage example which has sparked viral ridicule.
Donald Trump used a Florida rally to claim once more that he “aced” three cognitive tests, seemingly trying to dispel persistent scrutiny surrounding the 79-year-old's mental health.
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Speaking at The Villages on Friday, Trump’s cognitive test “perfection” boast included identifying animals and arithmetic as examples.
“The first question is very easy. It’s a lion, a giraffe, a bear, and a shark. They say, ‘which one is the bear’?"
He went on to say: “There’s a very standard test, but very tough around those last 10 questions… I’m in a room of brilliant people, but a lot of you wouldn’t have been able to answer those 10 questions."
As an example of the “tough” ones, he shared: “You know, they say, ‘take a number, any number’, ‘OK, I’ll take 99’, ‘multiply times nine’, ‘OK’, ‘divide it by three’, ‘good’, ‘add 4,293’, ‘that’s good’, ‘divide by two, subtract 93, divide by nine, what’s your answer?’”
He continued: “There aren’t a lot of people that get it right. I got it right.”
This prompted many to question the veracity of this statement.
By the way, the answer to: 99 x 9 (891) ÷ 3 (297) + 4,293 (4590) ÷ 2 (2295) - 93 (2202) ÷ 9 = 244.666 recurring.
Kudos if you managed to ace it without a calculator.
There was disbelief aplenty online, a sense of suspicion only bolstered by the fact Trump immediately followed up his "I got it right" brag with another boast featuring a mathematical mishap.
Trump mentioned “record-setting discounts” for Americans, citing price differences of “400 per cent, 500 per cent and 600, 700, and even sometimes, 800 per cent reductions”.
He clarified: “Some people would say it’s 80, 90, 70 – it depends on the way you phrase the statement – but it could be 500, 600 per cent, it could be 90 per cent, it doesn’t matter. We’ve gotten you the largest reductions in history."
The snag is that that’s not how percentages work, as a 100 per cent decrease would mean a reduction to 0, ie: it costs nothing.
These percentage claims drew ridicule from the likes of Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and California governor Gavin Newsom.
Check out some of the viral reactions below:
Incidentally, for those of you wondering about the disappearing ‘s’ in ‘maths’...
'Maths' is a shortened form of 'mathematics' but North Americans shorten the original term to 'math'. Americans contend that ‘math’ is just one thing, a singular noun, and not the count noun the British think it is. Because there are different types of maths, like algebra, calculus, geometry etc.
Both sides are grammatically correct. The extra 's' does make a lot more sense though.
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