President Donald Trump has once again thrust a decades-old mystery into the national spotlight, announcing on September 26, 2025, that he has ordered the declassification and public release of all government records related to the legendary aviator Amelia Earhart. The move, revealed in a post on Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, comes nearly ninety years after Earhart’s disappearance—a story that has captivated generations and spawned countless theories, both plausible and outlandish.
“Amelia made it almost three quarters around the World before she suddenly, and without notice, vanished, never to be seen again,” Trump wrote, echoing the fascination that continues to swirl around Earhart’s fate. “Her disappearance, almost 90 years ago, has captivated millions. I am ordering my Administration to declassify and release all Government Records related to Amelia Earhart, her final trip, and everything else about her.” According to the Associated Press, Trump added, “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Earhart, the first woman to pilot a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932, was attempting to become the first female aviator to circumnavigate the globe by aircraft when she vanished in 1937. She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared while flying from New Guinea to Howland Island in the South Pacific. Earhart’s last known radio transmission indicated she was running low on fuel, and despite a massive two-week Navy search, no trace of the pair or their Lockheed Electra aircraft was ever found. The U.S. government’s official position has long been that Earhart and Noonan went down with their plane, and she was declared legally dead in 1939.
The enduring mystery of Earhart’s disappearance has inspired a dizzying array of theories. Some suggest she was abducted by aliens or lived out her days under an alias in New Jersey. Others speculate she and Noonan were executed by the Japanese or perished as castaways on a remote island. As Fox News reported, the more grounded consensus among experts is that Earhart, low on fuel and facing a daunting navigation challenge, likely crashed near Howland Island. “It’s 99.9% that she ran out of gas,” journalist Laurie Gwen Shapiro told CBS News. “The fantasy around it is amazing.”
That hasn’t stopped a steady stream of speculation, historical inquiry, and even legislative efforts. As CBS News noted, a lawmaker representing the Northern Mariana Islands urged Trump earlier this year to declassify Earhart records, citing “credible, firsthand accounts” that the aviator was spotted on the Pacific island of Saipan. The theory that Earhart was on a spy mission and captured by the Japanese has persisted, though previously released FBI documents from 1967 reviewed Navy files marked “confidential” and concluded she was not a spy, did not crash-land in Saipan, and was not held prisoner or executed as a spy. The FBI ultimately approved the manuscript for publication, stating that the Navy files “do not warrant classification since the release of it would not be prejudicial to the national defense.”
Ric Gillespie, executive director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, who has spent decades investigating Earhart’s disappearance, expressed skepticism that much new information would emerge. “There’s nothing still classified by the U.S. government on Amelia Earhart,” Gillespie told the Associated Press. He pointed to previous document releases by the FBI and the National Archives and Records Administration, which have already made public thousands of pages related to Earhart’s final flight. “If these records shed any light on Earhart’s fate, it is a welcome action for Earhart historians and enthusiasts,” said Mindi Love Pendergraft, executive director of the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum, in an email to the AP. “This is sure to pique the interest of those dedicated to uncovering the mystery of Earhart’s disappearance.”
The timing of Trump’s announcement is notable, coming amid broader debates over government transparency and the release of sensitive files. Trump has made a point of ordering the declassification of records tied to high-profile historical events and figures, including the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. As Nexstar Media highlighted, those releases produced no major revelations but were viewed as steps toward satisfying public curiosity and addressing conspiracy theories.
Yet, not all efforts to unlock government secrets have been met with universal acclaim. Trump has faced mounting criticism—especially from Democrats—for withholding documents related to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. On the same day as the Earhart announcement, Democrats on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released partial records from the Epstein estate, including phone message logs, flight manifests, financial ledgers, and daily schedules spanning from 2002 to 2019. The documents mention possible contacts between Epstein and high-profile figures such as Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, Peter Thiel, and Prince Andrew. Trump, who has acknowledged knowing Epstein socially but claims they had a falling-out years before Epstein’s death in jail in 2019, has expressed frustration with ongoing demands for further releases. “We gave them everything over and over again, more, and more and more,” Trump said, as quoted by Nexstar Media. “And nobody is ever satisfied.” He has dismissed calls for additional Epstein files as a “Democrat hoax that never ends,” likening the situation to repeated requests for Kennedy assassination documents.
For Earhart enthusiasts, the hope is that Trump’s directive will either finally put lingering questions to rest or, at the very least, provide new avenues for historical research. But as history has shown, the most enduring mysteries are rarely solved with a single document dump. The National Archives, for its part, has already released significant records on the Earhart case, and efforts in Congress to require further disclosures—such as bills introduced in 1993—have failed to gain traction. The fascination with Earhart’s fate has less to do with classified files and more with the allure of an unsolved puzzle, one that blends heroism, tragedy, and the limits of human knowledge.
As researchers prepare for new expeditions to remote islands and the public awaits whatever records may surface, Trump’s latest move ensures that the legend of Amelia Earhart will continue to inspire curiosity, debate, and perhaps, a little bit of hope that one day, the truth will finally come to light.
