Donald Trump reveals who he ‘always’ thought killed JFK after releasing declassified files

Donald Trump has reignited decades-old conspiracy theories about John F. Kennedy’s assassination during a recent interview, offering a characteristically ambiguous take that both endorsed the official narrative and left room for speculation.

While speaking with Clay Travis of OutKick aboard his campaign plane, Trump stated he believes Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing JFK – “I do and I’ve always felt that” – but immediately followed with the provocative question: “Of course, was he helped?”

This rhetorical flourish gave oxygen to persistent conspiracy theories that have swirled around the 1963 Dallas shooting for six decades. Though Trump acknowledged Oswald as the shooter, his suggestive phrasing about possible co-conspirators aligns with long-debunked theories implicating everyone from the CIA and Mafia to Cuban operatives and Soviet intelligence.

The timing of his comments is notable, coming just weeks after Trump released what he claimed were newly declassified JFK files – though critics quickly pointed out these were largely duplicates of documents already made public by the Biden administration in 2023.

The exchange highlights Trump’s pattern of simultaneously embracing and undermining official narratives. By affirming the Warren Commission’s basic conclusion about Oswald while hinting at broader conspiracies, Trump satisfies both mainstream historians and the conspiracy-minded factions of his base.

Social media reactions reflected this division, with some praising Trump for “asking the right questions” while others mocked his supporters for believing they were seeing new revelations in recycled documents.

This isn’t Trump’s first foray into JFK conspiracy territory. In 2017, he promised to release “all remaining JFK files,” positioning himself as a truth-teller challenging government secrecy. Yet the recently released trove – like previous document dumps – contained no smoking guns, leaving the core facts of the case unchanged: Oswald fired from the Texas School Book Depository, and no conclusive evidence exists of a broader plot.

The episode underscores how Trump navigates historical controversies – offering enough ambiguity to keep conspiracy theories alive while avoiding full endorsement of fringe views.

For JFK researchers, it’s another chapter in the endless cycle of document releases and renewed speculation that ultimately leads back to the same evidentiary dead ends. For Trump’s political opponents, it’s another example of his penchant for muddying settled historical facts to serve his narrative as an anti-establishment truth-seeker.