John F. Kennedy Jr. spent his whole life running away from his father's legacy, but if he had embraced it, he would undoubtedly have been president and the country would be in a different state, a close pal has revealed in a tell-all interview.
Steven M. Gillon and Kennedy were friends for over 20 years and during that time Gillon saw how Kennedy wrestled with his identity. He was desperate to escape his father's shadow and find out who he was as an individual, but after all those years, he circled back to politics.
"John would have been president of the United States and I think the tone of our politics would have been completely different," Gillon told People in an interview on Tuesday.
"John would be a force for healing and bringing people together," he continued. "John thought he could inspire people — so I think about it often, how much better off our country would have been had John not made the foolish decision to take his plane on a hot humid July evening."
Although Kennedy had been reluctant to pursue politics, he had a change of heart shortly before the fateful plane crash that killed him, his wife and her sister on July 16, 1999.
"John spent his whole life trying to figure out who he was and what his relationship was going to be to his father’s legacy, and for most of his life, he ran away from it. And he ran away from it, because he wanted to find out who he really was, separate from the unique burden of his family," Gillon said.
"The other layer to the tragedy is that, by 1999, he figured out who he is," he continued. "And what he discovered is yes, he wants to go into politics. He wants to be his father’s son. But he dies just at the moment when he discovers who he is. The one thing John will always share with his father is this sense of what might have been."
Looking at current events, Gillon noted that the nation had become divided, but if Kennedy had been president, things would have been very different.
"John had the potential to unite a nation that has become so divided," Gillon said. "It would have been a huge undertaking and a reasonable person would say no one person could have done that, even someone whose name was John F. Kennedy Jr. But those of us who knew him think that he could have made a difference."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.