Populist Transparency: The JFK Assassination Records Act, Executive Order 14176, and the Normalization of Conspiratorial Thinking in US Politics

Abstract

In the days before his second inauguration, President-elect
Trump teased that “as a first step toward restoring transparency
and accountability to government” he would declassify
records related to the assassinations of President John F.
Kennedy (JFK), Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), and Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. (MLK).1 On January 23, 2025, President
Trump signed Executive Order (EO) 14176,2 which triggered
the declassification of “all records related to the assassination
of President Kennedy” pursuant to the President John F.
Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992