Trump Releases JFK Assassination File
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump made public documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, fulfilling his campaign promise to increase transparency about the tragic event in Texas. The first batch of electronic copies was posted on the National Archives website that evening, with over 80,000 additional files expected to be released after the Justice Department carefully reviews them.
These digital records, including PDFs of previously classified memos, offer insight into the tense atmosphere of the Cold War, especially following the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, which nearly brought the U.S. and Soviet Union to nuclear war.
The release of these documents is likely to draw the attention of those fascinated by the historical event, the assassination itself, and Kennedy’s legacy. Many of the files focus on investigators’ efforts to uncover more about Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin, his time in the Soviet Union, and his activities leading up to the fatal shooting of Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
An initial review of the documents revealed no significant changes to the widely accepted version of events. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s health secretary and nephew of John F. Kennedy, has previously suggested that the CIA may have been involved in his uncle’s assassination, a claim the agency has dismissed as unfounded. Kennedy Jr. did not comment on the release of the documents.
JFK’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, mentioned on X that the Trump administration did not inform any members of the Kennedy family before the release of the documents.
Fredrik Logevall, a history professor at Harvard, pointed out that while these documents might provide clarification on certain details, he does not expect them to offer groundbreaking revelations that would dramatically alter our understanding of the assassination.
One of the released files is a “secret” document that details a 1964 interview with CIA staffer Lee Wigren, who discussed inconsistencies in reports submitted to the Warren Commission by the CIA and the State Department about Soviet-American marriages, including Oswald’s marriage to Marina Oswald.
Documents from the Department of Defense from 1963 highlight the early Cold War tensions and U.S. efforts in Latin America to counter Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s support for communist movements. One document suggests that while Castro may not have wanted to provoke war with the U.S., he was likely to increase his support for subversive groups in the region.
A January 1962 document outlines “Operation Mongoose,” a CIA-led campaign authorized by President Kennedy to destabilize Cuba and overthrow Castro’s regime.
After taking office in January, Trump signed an order to release these documents, which led the FBI to discover thousands more files related to the assassination. The Justice Department instructed its national security team to expedite the review of these sensitive materials.
Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, praised Trump’s move toward “maximum transparency” in a post on X.
Historian Alice L. George, author of *The Assassination of John F. Kennedy*, noted that while Americans may hope for significant discoveries in these files, it’s unlikely they will answer all the lingering questions. “The Warren Commission did a thorough job at the time, but it’s much harder to uncover new truths when most of the involved parties are no longer alive,” she explained.
Despite the official conclusion that Oswald acted alone, many Americans still believe there may have been a conspiracy behind Kennedy’s assassination. Trump has also pledged to release documents related to the 1968 assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy, although he has allowed more time to finalize those releases.
