By the time the files were made public on Tuesday evening, some of the country’s top national security officials had spent hours trying to assess any possible security hazards under extreme deadline pressure.
John Ratcliffe, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, had been emphasizing to senior administration officials that some documents had nothing to do with Mr. Kennedy and were developed decades after the assassination, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions. He wanted to make sure that other officials were fully aware of what the files contained and would not be caught off guard, but he was clear that he would not seek to impede any files from being released, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations.
Soon after Mr. Trump spoke on Monday afternoon, officials at the National Security Council quickly convened a call to map out a plan to take stock of which documents still needed to be unredacted. The release had to be coordinated with the National Archives and Records Administration. Some officials raised concerns about unintended consequences of rushing the release of the files, including the disclosure of sensitive personal information like the Social Security numbers of people who were still alive, the people said.
Officials involved in the process of declassification said the number of files had expanded greatly over many decades because, with each investigation into Kennedy-related material, information that had nothing to do with the assassinated president has come under that umbrella. In some cases, that includes documents created decades after his death, according to one person with knowledge of the process.
“President Trump made a promise to release all of the J.F.K. files — and he is delivering on that promise,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “Anyone surprised by this hasn’t been paying attention or has been willfully ignorant.”
When asked on Monday whether he knew what was in the files, Mr. Trump said that he had “heard about them” but that he had not received an executive summary.
“I’m not doing summaries,” he said.
Spokesmen for the N.S.C. and C.I.A. declined to comment. A National Archives spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
For decades, historians and conspiracy theorists alike have clamored for more information on Kennedy’s death. A 1992 law required the government to release documents related to the killing within 25 years, except documents that could harm national security.
In 2017, Mr. Trump released some additional documents, but he also gave the intelligence agencies more time to assess the files and include redactions. Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News personality and associate of Mr. Trump, said the president came to regret that decision, and Mr. Trump has cast his effort to release the documents as the fulfillment of a long-held promise to the American people.
Just a few years ago, Mr. Trump said he did not have much interest in the files, which historians and many of his associates have wanted to see for decades. In an interview with a New York Times reporter in September 2021, Mr. Trump said that he was “not that curious” about the papers.
“The reason I did that was because I thought it was appropriate,” he said, explaining why he sought to declassify the files 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.”
But many people in Mr. Trump’s orbit, including Mr. Carlson and Mr. Trump’s longest-serving political adviser, Roger J. Stone Jr., have lobbied the president for years to order the release of all the files.
“The guy who sat at his desk was murdered, and every subsequent president has hidden why and by whom,” Mr. Carlson said in an interview on Tuesday. “How could you live like that?”
Kennedy’s assassination has long fueled conspiracy theories, including some that Mr. Trump himself has indulged. He has also used the interest around the assassination when it was politically expedient.
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father was also assassinated, endorsed Mr. Trump in August, Mr. Trump renewed his promise to release all the documents related to the killings of both Kennedys and to set up an independent commission to study assassination attempts, including the one on Mr. Trump in Butler, Pa., last year.
“This is a tribute in honor of Bobby,” Mr. Trump said.
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 at one point alleged that the father of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas had been with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before President Kennedy was killed.
“You know, his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being — you know, shot,” Mr. Trump told Fox News in an interview in May 2016, as he was running 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 overhauled by making himself chairman and installing loyalists, including Richard Grenell, who briefly served as acting director of national intelligence in the final year of Mr. Trump’s first term. As he was leaving, Mr. Trump said that he had a “big announcement to make.”
“While we’re here, I thought it would be appropriate,” he said. “We are tomorrow announcing and giving all of the Kennedy files. So — people have been waiting for decades for this.”
