Donald Trump’s recent release of thousands of classified documents concerning the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy sparked controversy and failed to provide the long-awaited truth. The mystery surrounding Kennedy’s death on November 22, 1963, has lingered for decades. The Trump administration adhered to the 1992 Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, which had initially set a full disclosure deadline for 2017. On March 18, Trump declassified 80,000 documents related to the assassination.
On March 17, Trump promised transparency, stating, “We have a tremendous amount of paper,” and assured no redactions would remain. Despite his claims, not all files were released. Some documents had already been made public in 2018 with redactions, while President Biden released 13,000 more in 2022.
While Tulsi Gabbard praised the transparency, many were disappointed by the documents, which largely supported the Warren Commission’s findings. The commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in shooting Kennedy from the Texas School Book Depository.
Conspiracy theories, ranging from mob involvement to CIA orchestration, still persist. Although the documents shed new light, they failed to settle long-standing debates. The JFK assassination remains a deeply divisive and unresolved chapter in American history.