Is Trump’s memory declining? Simple tests during his physical could answer that question

When President Trump has his physical exam on Friday, there is little chance he will repeat the same story within a span of 10 minutes or fail to recognize old friends, as the explosive new book “Fire and Fury” by Michael Wolff asserts he has done in the past.

But the mental deterioration that causes such memory lapses would be detectable on standard cognitive tests. The White House told reporters on Monday that psychiatric tests would not be conducted as part of the president’s physical, but did not explicitly rule out cognitive assessments.

The physical, which will take place at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, comes amid an increasingly public debate about whether Trump is suffering cognitive decline precipitous enough to impair his capacity to carry out the work of the presidency.

Unlike tests for emotional instability, personality disorder, or other psychiatric disorders that some armchair