In Just One Day, Many Surprises from Trump

Not a day goes by without a bold move or a surprising statement—such is the hallmark of Donald Trump. The 45th and 47th President of the United States has once again stirred attention with his plan to release classified documents related to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday (18/3/2025) local time.

The JFK assassination case in 1963 still sparks conspiracy theories more than 60 years after his death. At least 80,000 pages of documents are set to be released by the Trump administration.

On Tuesday, Trump—according to the plan—will also speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin via telephone. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has already confirmed Putin's participation on Monday (17/3/2025).

However, he did not provide further details. This is because he did not want to preempt the outcome of the discussions. European allied nations are wary of Trump's closeness to Putin and his hardline stance toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump and Putin last spoke over the phone in early February 2025. The exact timing of their communication is not known. Trump recounted the phone call in a statement on February 8, 2025.

Trump has not explicitly disclosed how many times he has spoken with Putin. What is clear is that he only emphasized having a good relationship with Putin.

In the planned telephone communication between Trump and Putin, it is hoped that there will be a turning point in efforts to end the war in Ukraine. "We'll see if we have something to announce on Tuesday. I will speak with President Putin on Tuesday," said Trump.

As if he wasn't busy enough, on Tuesday Trump also began imposing a 25 percent import tariff (BMI) on goods from Mexico and Canada. Trump's statement triggered a global stock selloff and pushed bond yields down. The Mexican peso and Canadian dollar also fell.

The BMI is scheduled to go into effect at 12:01 a.m. local time Tuesday. At that time, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency will begin levying 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods, with a 10 percent tariff on Canadian energy. If the U.S. insists on raising the BMI, Canada will retaliate with a 25 percent BMI on $107 billion worth of U.S. goods.

China's BMI will also go into effect on that date. Trump will raise the BMI on all Chinese imports to 20 percent from the previous 10 percent.

China also urged the US to immediately abandon its plan, which China described as unreasonable, baseless and detrimental to others. China is expected to retaliate against the US by targeting US agricultural and food products.

The release plan was announced by Trump while visiting the Kennedy Center, a performing arts venue in Washington, US, on Monday (3/17/2025), local time. On January 23, 2025, Trump signed an executive order calling for the declassification of JFK assassination documents.

In addition to the JFK assassination documents, there are also documents related to the assassination of JFK's brother, Robert F Kennedy (father of US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr), and the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr in 1968. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation, in early February 2025, discovered thousands of new documents related to the JFK assassination.

Trump's reasoning is that many people have been waiting for clarity on this case for decades. Trump said the matter would be handled by US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. "We have a lot of documents. You're going to have a lot to read. I don't think we're going to redact anything," she said.

In recent years, the US National Archives has released tens of thousands of records related to the assassination of JFK on November 22, 1963. But thousands more documents are still being withheld on national security grounds. The most Kennedy-related documents were released in December 2022.

So far, 97 percent of Kennedy's notes have been made public. They total five million pages. The Warren Commission, which investigated the shooting of the charismatic 46-year-old president, determined that the shooting was carried out by a former Marine sniper, Lee Harvey Oswald. He was said to have acted alone.

But the official conclusion has failed to quell speculation that a more sinister plot was behind JFK's assassination in Dallas, Texas. The slow release of the government files has added fuel to conspiracy theories.

Trump has sought to win Putin's support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week. Regarding concessions being considered in the ceasefire negotiations, Trump said the U.S. would talk about land and nuclear power plants along the Russia-Ukraine border.

The nuclear power plant is also being discussed by the US with Ukraine. The nuclear power plant in question appears to refer to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The Kremlin said Putin had sent a message to Trump about the ceasefire plan via US envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump National Security Adviser Mike Waltz warned that there were still challenges to overcome before Russia would agree to a ceasefire, let alone end the war. Trump acknowledged that much work remains for the U.S. and Russia to resolve the Ukraine conflict.

But there is a very good chance of ending the war. Putin has said he would support a ceasefire but only if it leads to “long-term peace and addresses the root causes of the crisis.”

Among Putin's demands are that Ukraine never join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance, that European peacekeepers not be deployed to Ukrainian territory, and that Russia be allowed to retain all the territories it currently occupies.

Since Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia now controls about a fifth of Ukraine's territory. President Zelenskyy has rejected Putin's demands, suspecting that Putin does not really want peace.

There is one more thing that makes you shake your head. Trump hung a copy of the Declaration of Independence in the Oval Office of the White House. At least that's what it looks like from the photos he shared on social media. Trump's official account on X shows two photos of framed copies of the historic document hanging on the wall not far from Trump's desk.

It is unclear where the copy came from or when it was installed. “The National Archives turned over the Declaration of Independence to the White House at the president’s request. It is on display in the Oval Office, where it will be protected and preserved,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

The original version of the Declaration of Independence is badly faded and is on display in the National Archives. On the version hanging in the White House, according to the uploaded photo, the letters are still clear and legible. In his upload, Trump simply wrote: "Declaration of Independence in the Oval Office". The document is one of the new decorations installed by Trump.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump brought a painting of Andrew Jackson, a portrait of George Washington above the fireplace, a bust of Winston Churchill and a special Trump button for ordering Diet Coke. (REUTERS/AFP/AP)