Promised release of JFK files has Trump supporters bracing for disappointment

Voters across the political spectrum are bracing for disappointment after President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he would release new files regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Trump promised the so-called JFK files in remarks to reporters on Monday, but gave no further details on timing or the extent of the information. As of Tuesday afternoon, the documents are nowhere to be found. 

Voters, even hardcore Trump supporters, aren’t exactly waiting with baited breath, particularly after the disappointing rollout of new information on the financier and serial sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein. 

“If they do this with the JFK files, we riot,” wrote one account on X, accompanied by a photo of right-wing influencers at the White House. 

“People are all excited about the release of the JFK files like it's not gonna be one big nothingburger,” said one history buff on X. “Guess what? Oswald was the only shooter, and nothing in those files will say otherwise.”

The Trump administration has been doing its best to drum up excitement for the release, updating a webpage on the National Archives' official site where the files may be hosted. White House Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields even claimed “the American people will be shocked” in an interview with NewsNation. 

Nevertheless, onlookers joked that the allegedly 80,000 pages worth of information will be heavily redacted, circulating a meme of documents blacked-out with the exception of a single sentence. 

“Ted Cruz’s dad,” a meme from a progressive account on X read, referring to Trump’s own conspiracy theory that the Texas senator’s father killed JFK. 

“Iran did it,” another meme on X joked. “This is totally real.”

Voters have reason to be skeptical about just how earth-shattering the revelations may be. 

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to release files on not just Epstein and Kennedy, but on the murders of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and JFK’s brother Robert F. Kennedy, as well as research on UFOs. 

The president issued an executive order to declassify some of those files during his first week in office. But so far, that information has either stayed under wraps or let down the very conspiracy-minded base it was meant to excite. 

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.