WASHINGTON — Marking his fourth day back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump on Thursday continued his executive order blitz, taking new action on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, pardoning abortions protesters, declassifying information related to the assassinations of three historic U.S. figures and more.
Following through on a campaign trail promise, Trump remarked that people had been waiting for this “for years, for decades” for this move as he signed a document making remaining files on the deaths of former President John F. Kennedy, former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. publicly accessible.
“And everything will be revealed,” Trump said.
The order mandates that his director of national intelligence and attorney general – neither of which have been confirmed in the Senate yet – to present Trump with a plan for the “full and complete” release of records surrounding JFK’s death in 1963 within 15 days. The officials are given 45 days to do the same for RFK and MLK, who were both killed in 1968.
Just a fraction of the millions of documents on the former president’s assassination have yet to be released, according to the Associated Press. Trump first pursued the idea for JFK records in his first term but agreed to keep some withheld amid concerns from the intelligence community.
After signing the action, the president noted that the pen used should be given to Trump’s pick to be his Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is also RFK’s son.
Among the other moves the president carried out on Thursday was the issuing of pardons for 23 activists convicted for actions relating to protests over the practice of abortion.
“This is a great honor to sign this,” Trump said as he put his signature on the document, adding “They should not have been prosecuted.”
Meanwhile, the newly sworn-in president also took action aimed at boosting America’s competitiveness in the technology fields of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. One order moves to revoke certain policies that the administration argues makes innovation in AI more challenging while another looks to enable the government to aid in the growth of digit assets and blockchain technology.
The artificial intelligence order does not mention the specific policies it will rescind but instead mandates a review of all guidelines in place, including those stemming from former President Joe Biden’s sweeping executive action on the matter, which Trump reversed on Monday. Officials will need an “action plan” on how to enforce the order within 180 days.
It comes two days after Trump brought together Oracle’s Larry Ellison, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, to announce a new joint venture to invest in AI infrastructure in the United States. Billionaire Elon Musk, a close Trump ally and advisor, criticized the announcement and claimed that they don’t actually have the money to back it.
Asked about his advisor’s comments on Thursday, Trump downplayed the public pushback from Musk, noting that the Tesla founder “happens to hate” one of the people involved in the plan, Altman.
The cryptocurrency action focuses on rules for its growth in the U.S. but it also creates an internal working group focused on the matter that, among other things, will consider a “national digital asset stockpile.”
He also separately established an advisory council on science and technology, with the intent, as an official noted, of ensuring America “maintains its leadership position” in the field in the years ahead.
Trump also signed an order seeking to support the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.