On September 26, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he was ordering the declassification of all government records related to Amelia Earhart and her final flight. In his post, Trump described Earhart as an aviation pioneer and expressed interest in releasing everything about her 1937 disappearance in the South Pacific. Trump’s announcement immediately drew attention from media outlets, with the Associated Press contacting aviation experts and historians for fact-checking. Experts note that much of Earhart’s history with the U.S. government is already publicly documented. Thousands of primary-source reports, logs, and letters relating to her flights and disappearance are accessible, and materials that were once classified have long since been declassified.
The official Coast Guard report on the failed 1937 search was originally classified due to concerns about public reaction to criticisms of Earhart and the Navy. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau reportedly withheld the report, citing fears that its release would damage Earhart’s reputation and anger the president. That report was declassified in 1982. Later reforms in federal classification policy, including President Bill Clinton’s Executive Order 12958 in 1995, further declassified Office of Naval Intelligence files more than 25 years old, including materials related to Earhart. While some documents may not yet have been fully cataloged by the National Archives, aviation historians say there is little reason to expect that Trump’s order will uncover new information.
