Jack Schlossberg says Donald Trump is using his late grandfather as a "political prop". (AP: Paul Sancya)
In short:
John F Kennedy's grandson says there is "nothing heroic" about US President Donald Trump signing an executive order to release classified documents relating to the former president's assassination.
Jack Schlossberg said JFK is being used as a "political prop, when he's not here to punch back".
What's next?
It is not clear when the records will be released, but the order directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan within 15 days.
John F Kennedy's grandson has slammed Donald Trump over his decision to sign an executive order to declassify files relating to the assassination of the former US president.
On Thursday, Mr Trump ordered the release of thousands of classified governmental documents about the 1963 assassination of president John F Kennedy, which has fuelled conspiracy theories for decades.
Trump live updates: Look back at the developments in Donald Trump's second term in our US politics blog
The executive order also aims to declassify the remaining federal records relating to the assassination of senator Robert F Kennedy and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
The order is the latest in a flurry of executive actions Mr Trump has quickly taken in the first week of his second term.
"Everything will be revealed," Mr Trump said.
Truth 'sadder than myth', grandson says
Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of JFK and son of former US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, slammed the US president's latest move.
"The truth is a lot sadder than the myth" Mr Schlossberg wrote on social media platform X, referencing the conspiracy theories that have surrounded the assassination.
"A tragedy that didn't need to happen. Not part of an inevitable grand scheme."
Mr Schlossberg added that the decision to declassify documents turns the late former president into "a political prop, when he's not here to punch back".
"There's nothing heroic about it," he said.
Who is Jack Schlossberg, JFK's only grandson?
Photo shows Man in suit poses for selfie by himself on a phone with the peace sign.
Mr Trump had promised during his re-election campaign to make public the last batches of still-classified documents surrounding president Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, which has transfixed people for decades.
He made a similar pledge during his first term, but ultimately bended to appeals from the CIA and FBI to keep some documents withheld.
And while files have continued to be released under former president Joe Biden, some still remain unseen.
Mr Trump has nominated Kennedy's nephew, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to be the health secretary in his new administration.
Mr Kennedy's father, Robert F Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 while running for president.
RFK Jr has said he isn't convinced that a lone gunman was solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, president Kennedy, in 1963.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, a well known vaccine sceptic, will be health secretary. (Reuters: Eduardo Munoz)
Plan to be developed within days
The order directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan within 15 days to declassify the remaining John F Kennedy records, and within 45 days for the other two cases.
However, it was not clear when the records would actually be released.
Mr Trump handed the pen used to sign the order to an aide and directed it to be given to Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Only a few thousand of the millions of governmental records related to the assassination of president Kennedy have yet to be fully declassified.
Read more on US politics:
- Trump asks workers to inform on each other during dramatic day in US
- JFK's grandson criticises Trump over release of assassination records
- Trump says he wants to meet Putin 'soon' to end Ukraine war
While many who have studied what's been released so far say the public shouldn't anticipate any earth-shattering revelations, there is still an intense interest in details related to the assassination and the events surrounding it.
"There's always the possibility that something would slip through that would be the tiny tip of a much larger iceberg that would be revealing," said Larry J Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of The Kennedy Half-Century.
"That's what researchers look for. Now, odds are you won't find that but it is possible that it's there."
Thousands of documents yet to be released
Kennedy was fatally shot in downtown Dallas on November 22, 1963, as his motorcade passed in front of the Texas School Book Depository building, where 24-year-old assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had positioned himself from a sniper's perch on the sixth floor.
John F Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in his motorcade on November 22, 1963. (Reuters: Victor Hugo King/Library of Congress)
Two days after Kennedy was killed, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer.
In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration.
The collection of over 5 million records was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president.
National Archives releases documents related to JFK assassination
Photo shows Black text across two paper pages
Sabato, who trains student researchers to comb through the documents, said that most researchers agree that "roughly" 3,000 records have not yet been released, either in whole or in part, and many of those originated with the CIA.
The documents released over the last several years offer details on the way intelligence services operated at the time, and include CIA cables and memos discussing visits by Oswald to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to Mexico City just weeks before the assassination.
The former marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas.
There are still some documents in the collection though that researchers don't believe the president would be able to release. Around 500 documents, including tax returns, weren't subject to the 2017 disclosure requirement.
And, researchers note, documents have also been destroyed over the decades.
ABC/wires
