Donald Trump floated the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald may not have acted alone while carrying out John F. Kennedy’s assassination—contradicting what the U.S. government concluded after his killing.
Trump released thousands of files on the case last week, piquing interest once again in the murder that happened over six decades ago. Conspiracies have festered around the notorious killing for years, from theories that involved government interference to multiple gunmen.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation held some 25,000 interviews while chasing down thousands of leads. The Warren Commission, put together after JFK’s death, ultimately concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old U.S. Marine, acted alone and was killed days later by Texas nightclub owner Jack Ruby.
Trump, however, seemed to endorse some of the long-running conspiracies surrounding the case in a new podcast interview this weekend.
While speaking with conservative host Clay Travis aboard Air Force One, Travis asked flatly: “Do you think Oswald killed JFK personally?”
“I do, and I always felt that—but of course, was he helped?” Trump said.
“Nobody could say. And [the case file] has been released,” he added.
Despite the mass release of more than 80,000 documents, he called the findings “somewhat unspectacular“—saying, ”maybe that’s a good thing.”
The president has touted a major push for “transparency” in his new administration, promising the release of other files, such as those related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
The first file drop of his administration, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi into Jeffrey Epstein, left even his most loyal supporters angry due to a noticeable lack of new information that hadn’t already been released to the public.