Donald Trump to release 80,000 pages of JFK assassination files on Tuesday: ’It’s going to be very interesting’

On Monday, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration would release approximately 80,000 pages of classified documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Set to be made public on Tuesday, these files are part of a long-awaited disclosure that has sparked public interest for decades. "People have been waiting for decades for this," Trump said during a visit to The Kennedy Center in Washington. "It's going to be very interesting."

This move follows Trump's earlier executive order to declassify documents concerning the assassinations of not only JFK, but also his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.  Trump emphasised that the American people deserve the truth after over six decades of secrecy surrounding these pivotal events in U.S. history. The release of these records aligns with the President’s campaign promise to provide transparency and address lingering questions surrounding these tragic assassinations.

Notably, it was President Trump's campaign promise to release assassination records to give Americans the truth.

President Trump pledged on multiple occasions to release the JFK files, specifically stating in June 2024 that he would do so "early on."

"When I return to the White House, I will declassify and unseal all JFK assassination-related documents. It's been 60 years, time for the American people to know the TRUTH!" Trump stated.

November 22, 1963

When Air Force One, carrying JFK and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, touched down in Dallas, they were greeted by a clear sky and enthusiastic crowds. With a reelection campaign on the horizon the next year, they went to Texas for a political fence-mending trip.

But as the motorcade was finishing its parade route downtown, shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, who had positioned himself from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor. Two days later, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer.

A year after the assassination, the Warren Commission, which President Lyndon B. Johnson established to investigate, concluded that Oswald acted alone and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy. But that didn't quell a web of alternative theories over the decades.

The JFK files

In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single National Archives and Records Administration collection. The collection of over 5 million records was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president.

Trump, who took office for his first term in 2017, had said that he would allow the release of all of the remaining records but ended up holding some back because of what he called the potential harm to national security.

-With agency inputs