45's upcoming med eval will NOT include mental status

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/08/donald-trump-medical-doctor-health-269759

"If President Donald Trump were any other 71-year-old — covered by Medicare and having his annual wellness visit — he'd be checked on his cognitive functions and possible safety risks. But when the president goes for his physical exam Friday, the White House said his mental fitness won't be tested. And there's no guarantee that the public would find out the results of cognitive tests if Trump were to take them.

White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said such tests are not part of the president’s planned physical. "He's sharp as a tack. He's a workhorse, and he demands his staff be the same way," he told reporters aboard Air Force One..
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But the White House is not required to perform a regular physical exam of the president, nor required to release all the details unless the president consents. The exam also may not include Medicare's standard battery of wellness tests, which are designed for Americans age 66 and older, and check for risks like depression and other neurological problems. When asked whether Trump would have "a psychiatric test," Gidley responded no, but declined to elaborate.

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But experts have warned that the traditional physical doesn't go far enough to assess a president's mental state. Lawrence Mohr, who was a White House physician to Reagan and President George H.W. Bush, believed that presidents should be evaluated for "alertness, cognitive function, judgment, appropriate behavior, the ability to choose among options and the ability to communicate clearly," he told a researcher in 2010. That wouldn't be just a theoretical exercise; about half of all previous presidents have suffered from a known illness or injury in office.
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For a typical man Trump's age, any cognitive risk would likely be revealed by the Medicare annual wellness visit, which specifically screens older adults for mental impairment — although the White House said that Trump won't undergo a similar battery of tests.
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"The focus of these [Medicare] visits is thinking about what are the ways aging adults face unique risks and how we can mitigate them," said Ishani Ganguli, a Harvard Medical School primary care physician who has studied Medicare's exam and performed many herself. "In this population, I'm thinking about subtle changes in cognitive function."

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Ganguli said that regardless of what's covered in a routine presidential physical, a trained physician should tailor tests to the specific patient.

"A physical — really, any opportunity a primary care physician has to evaluate a patient — should always prompt evaluation of concerning symptoms," Ganguli said. "In Trump's case, even if the doctor wasn't doing a cognitive evaluation for routine screening, he or she would be compelled to evaluate for cognitive deficits if they had cause for concern."