An independent tracker has begun documenting Trump administration actions on federal information access

by Piyush Mathur

Historians, journalists, political observers, and citizens at large are likely to find useful a documented list of references to informational items that have been taken offline (or pointedly altered in substance) by the second Trump administration since it took charge on January 20, 2025.

Rachel Santarsiero
(Image credit: George
Washington University)

Called ‘A Disappearing Data Chronology’, this list was conceived and operationalised by Rachel Santarsiero on March 30, 2026, and is hosted by George Washington University’s National Security Archive. It includes references to administrative actions taken in regard to US federal government’s digital troves, websites, links, posters, photos, exhibitions, archival material, etc.

Santarsiero is the director of the National Security Archive’s Climate Change Transparency Project.

The list—whose first item is dated to January 20, 2025—also includes links to reports or official press releases related to the removal of officials or offices relevant to the retention, production, and display of specific types of information by the US government. One can access the list via this Unique Resource Locator (URL): https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/special-exhibit/climate-change-transparency-project/2026-03-30/disappearing-data-chronology#_edn1

As of now, the last update to the list was made on January 25, 2026. While it is unclear whether it is going to be developed further as a comprehensive and structured resource (say, with a searchable index, for example), the list website promises that important updates would be periodically added to it.

The list was also published in the April 2026 issue of Passport: The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Review, a journal published by the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR).