President Trump’s national security team was caught off guard and left scrambling when he declared on Monday that he would release 80,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, providing only 24 hours of notice.
Administration officials had been preparing for the release since January, following Mr. Trump’s executive order mandating it. However, as of Monday afternoon, that process was still in motion when Mr. Trump, during a visit to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, announced that the files would be available the following day.
By Tuesday evening, approximately 64,000 files were made public—fewer than Mr. Trump had anticipated—while some of the country’s leading national security officials worked tirelessly under intense deadline pressure to evaluate any potential risks.
As the files became available on Tuesday evening, top national security officials had devoted hours to assess possible security threats under tight time constraints.
John Ratcliffe, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, had been stressing to senior administration officials that certain documents were unrelated to Mr. Kennedy and were produced decades after his assassination, according to sources familiar with the discussions. He aimed to ensure other officials were fully informed about the contents of the files, and while he would not impede any releases, he sought clarity regarding the material being disclosed.
Immediately after Mr. Trump’s announcement on Monday afternoon, National Security Council officials quickly organized a call to strategize about which documents still needed to be unredacted. Coordination with the National Archives and Records Administration was essential. Some officials expressed concerns about the potential unintended consequences of hastily releasing the documents, including the risk of exposing sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers of living individuals.
Officials involved in the declassification process noted that the volume of files had significantly increased over decades. With each inquiry into Kennedy-related materials, documents unrelated to the assassinated president were also caught in that categorization, including materials created long after his death, according to one insider.
“President Trump made a promise to release all of the J.F.K. files — and he is delivering on that promise,” stated Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. “Anyone surprised by this hasn’t been paying attention or has been willfully ignorant.”
When asked on Monday if he was familiar with the contents of the files, Mr. Trump replied that he had “heard about them” but had not received an executive summary.
“I’m not doing summaries,” he added.
Spokespersons for the N.S.C. and C.I.A. declined to comment. A spokesperson for the National Archives did not respond to a request for comment.
For decades, both historians and conspiracy theorists have sought more information about Kennedy’s assassination. A law passed in 1992 mandated that documents related to the assassination be released within 25 years unless doing so would jeopardize national security.
In 2017, Mr. Trump released some additional documents but also allowed intelligence agencies more time to review the files and implement redactions. Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News personality and friend of Mr. Trump, asserted that the president later regretted that decision, framing his efforts to release the documents as the realization of a long-held commitment to the American populace.
Just a few years prior, Mr. Trump claimed to have little interest in the files that many historians and allies had long wished to access. In a September 2021 interview with a New York Times reporter, Mr. Trump remarked that he was “not that curious” about the documents.
“The reason I did that was because I thought it was appropriate,” he clarified, discussing why he sought their declassification during his first term. “When you have something that’s so sacredly secret, it really makes it sound very bad. I think they maybe got it right, probably got it right. Let people examine it.”
However, many individuals within Mr. Trump’s sphere, including Mr. Carlson and his longest-serving political adviser, Roger J. Stone Jr., have urged the president for years to authorize the full release of the files.
“The guy who sat at his desk was murdered, and every subsequent president has hidden why and by whom,” Mr. Carlson commented in an interview on Tuesday. “How could you live like that?”
Kennedy’s assassination has historically generated numerous conspiracy theories, some of which Mr. Trump has entertained. He has also leveraged the public interest surrounding the assassination when politically beneficial.
Following the endorsement of Mr. Trump by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father was also assassinated, the president reaffirmed his promise to disclose all documents related to the deaths of both Kennedys and to create an independent commission to investigate assassination attempts, including an incident targeting Mr. Trump in Butler, Pa., last year.
“This is a tribute in honor of Bobby,” Mr. Trump remarked.
He added: “I have never had more people ask me, ‘Please sir, release the documents on the Kennedy assassination,’ and we’re going to do that.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump once suggested that the father of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas had been in the company of Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before President Kennedy was shot.
“You know, his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being — you know, shot,” Mr. Trump told Fox News in a May 2016 interview while competing against Mr. Cruz for the Republican nomination. “I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right? Prior to his being shot, and nobody brings it up. They don’t even talk about that. That was reported and nobody talks about it. But I think it’s horrible.”
On Monday, Mr. Trump attended a board meeting at the Kennedy Center, an institution he revamped by becoming chairman and appointing loyalists, including Richard Grenell, who briefly held the position of acting director of national intelligence during the final year of Mr. Trump’s first term. As he departed, Mr. Trump announced that he had a “big announcement to make.”
“While we’re here, I thought it would be appropriate,” he stated. “We are tomorrow announcing and giving all of the Kennedy files. So — people have been waiting for decades for this.”
