Donald Trump releases final files on JFK assassination

US President Donald Trump has ordered the release of the last classified documents relating to the assassination of then US head of state John F. Kennedy six decades ago. “This is a big deal, isn’t it? A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades,” Trump said on Thursday as he signed an executive order. “Everything will be revealed.” Documents on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy’s younger brother Robert F. Kennedy and the civil rights activist Martin Luther King will also be released.

Trump gave the pen he used during the signing to an employee with instructions to pass the writing instrument on to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He is the son of former Attorney General and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy as well as the nephew of John F. Kennedy – and Trump’s candidate for health secretary.

Trump’s order provides for the “full and unrestricted release” of the files on John F. Kennedy’s assassination, including without the redactions that he accepted when they were released in 2017 during his first term in office. “It is in the national interest to finally and immediately release all records relating to these killings,” it said.

Kennedy was fatally shot while driving in an open car in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. After Kennedy’s death, an official investigation concluded that the 46-year-old US Democrat was shot by the lone gunman Oswald, who in turn was killed two days later by the nightclub owner Jack Ruby.

To this day, there are numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination attempt on the charismatic president, which shocked the world. Trump’s move is also a gesture to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., himself one of the most famous supporters of such theories.

In 1968, five years after the assassination attempt on “JFK”, Robert F. Kennedy also fell victim to an assassination attempt: he was gunned down in Los Angeles on the night of June 5, 1968 and died from his injuries a day later. At this point he was a promising candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination and also for the election victory.

In December 2022, then-President Joe Biden released thousands of additional secret documents on the “JFK” case; according to the US National Archives, 97 percent of the documents were published. Biden said at the time that a “limited” number of documents would remain classified. This is necessary to prevent “damage to military defense, intelligence operations, police work or foreign policy.” Trump himself had more than 53,000 documents released in seven tranches during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021.

The pastor and civil rights activist Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and died in prison in 1998 – but King’s children had expressed doubts in the past as to whether Ray was really the perpetrator.