On Thursday, US President Donald Trump ordered the declassification of the last secret files on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This case still fuels conspiracy theories more than 60 years after his death.
The executive order Trump signed also aims to declassify the remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The order is among a flurry of executive actions Trump has quickly taken in the first week of his second term.
Here we go!
Trump signing the order on release of remaining JFK, RFK, and MLK Jr. assassination files.
Trump points out how we have been waiting for decades for this.
But most importantly, he says “EVERYTHING will be revealed”, and asks the pen be delivered to RFK Jr. pic.twitter.com/KuhmAlbd73
— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) January 23, 2025
“That’s big one, huh? A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades,” Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office of the White House.
“Everything will be revealed.”
After signing the order, Trump passed the pen he used to an aide, saying, “Give that to RFK Jr.,” JFK’s nephew and the current president’s nominee to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump has ordered officials to prepare a declassification plan within 15 days. “Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth. It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay,” reads the order from the White House.
In the past, the US National Archives has released tens of thousands of records in recent years related to the November 22, 1963, assassination of President Kennedy but held thousands back, citing national security concerns.