Smarter Than The President? Central Iowa Mensa Sets Des Moines Test Sessions Oct. 28

DES MOINES, IA — With IQ tests in the news after President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had a spat over higher intellect, the group best known for representing genius IQ offered to settle the matter by testing both men. American Mensa offered the group's membership test to both to determine which man is smarter.

Good news, Iowans. You can take the test yourself this month if you want to prove you have them both beat. The Central Iowa Mensa chapter has two test sessions in Des Moines on Oct. 28 and they are open to anyone who wants to try for admission into the exclusive group.

The test costs $30 this month — half the normal rate, according to the Mensa website. Test-taking is supervised by Mensa volunteer proctors and anyone 14 and older can take the standardized test. More details about the test, including location for the 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. Des Moines testing locations, is provided when signing up.

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The Mensa Admission Test takes two hours to complete and involves a two-part exam with questions involving logic and deductive reasoning. Mensa said more than 6 million Americans qualify for membership, but most have not considered application to the group through testing. It also offers membership to anyone who can submit evidence of prior testing on a supervised, standardized test like the Stanford Binet, the Miller Analogies Test or the GMAT.

A score in the top 2 percent qualifies for membership in American Mensa.

Mensa's offer to Trump and Tillerson to once and for all determine who has the superior intellect came after Trump addressed in a Forbes interview, published Tuesday, whether the whole dust-up over Tillerson calling him a "moron" really had occurred.

"I think it's fake news, but if he did that, I guess we'll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win," Trump told Forbes.

After the Forbes interview was published, the political news site The Hill sought to resolve whether there could be a presidential brain bowl. It asked Mensa if the organization would give its admission tests to Trump and Tillerson.

“American Mensa would be happy to hold a test-taking session," replied Charles Brown, the group’s communications director.

Though Brown wouldn’t say whether other presidents or Cabinet leaders are members of the elite group, he did say several have reached career milestones that would have qualified them for Mensa admission. For example, President Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar, Jimmy Carter worked as a nuclear engineer and George H.W. Bush was a military pilot.

“Each could have encountered standardized academic tests (LSAT, GMAT, Miller Analogies) where qualifying scores would have propelled them into Mensa,” Brown told The Hill, noting that admissions tests aren’t the only avenue for geniuses to become members of Mensa.

Trump has frequently boasted about his high IQ, though he’s never revealed what it is, and has bristled at suggestions that former President Barack Obama’s IQ is higher. CNN reported Trump has bragged about his IQ at least 22 times.

Escalating tensions between Trump and Tillerson reached a zenith last week when NBC News published an explosive report alleging the secretary of state was on the verge of resigning last summer and had called the president a “moron.” The day the report came out, Tillerson said in a hastily called news conference that he had never considered resigning and seemed to make a point of calling the president “smart,” but when a reporter asked if he had disparaged the president by calling him a moron, the secretary of state said only that he wasn’t going to wade into the weeds over “petty stuff.”

In a followup news conference, a State Department spokeswoman said Tillerson never called Trump a moron and doesn’t use language like that.

What reportedly pushed Tillerson to the brink was an address at a Boy Scouts of America rally that turned into a raunchy political speech. Tillerson once led the Boy Scouts organization.

Back to Mensa and its tests. The group says individuals can only take a test or test battery once unless American Mensa's Supervisory Psychologist provides an allowance for circumstantial reasons. The group also notes on its website that "tests are given for the purpose of admission into Mensa and not to quantify intelligence."

So if Trump and Tillerson do accept the offer to take the test, the one who scores lower still can claim the test didn't show who is smarter.

Rex Tillerson shakes hands with President Donald Trump after being sworn in as secretary of state at the White House on Feb. 1, 2017. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images/Getty Images News)

This story includes reporting by Beth Dalbey, Patch national staff.