Innovation, teamwork and strong beat coverage result in impressive and creative stories about Trump’s first 100 days in office

By Humera Lodhi, Maya Sweedler, Linda Gorman, Sara Burnett, Annie Ng, Eunice Esomunu, Cal Woodward, Chris Megerian, beat reporters covering the Trump administration

Months of planning helped AP produce elegant, easy-to-digest ways to help readers understand just what President Donald Trump did in the whirlwind first 100 days of his second term. Anchored by three major storytelling efforts, the Washington and Elections Graphics teams distilled a torrent of news into an innovative and sophisticated package.

To capture the scope and dizzying speed of developments, the team created a data visualization of AP push alerts that had kept audiences informed in real time. Humera Lodhi and Maya Sweedler wrote an algorithm to parse every alert and identify which to include. The alerts were then categorized by topic and news stage. Lodhi designed the experience and Linda Gorman built the page, implementing a scrollytelling format. The narrative text was crafted by the team and edited by Sara Burnett. Annie Ng’s illustrations added visual interest and clearly marked alert groupings by topic.

The second piece in the package was written by Cal Woodward and Chris Megerian, who explored Trump’s pre-term promises, how they were being fulfilled, and whether they were likely to endure. The story was built around AP’s Trump promises tracker, an interactive project Woodward created in collaboration with Eunice Esomunu and Lodhi ahead of Trump’s second inauguration. Woodward has maintained the tracker, charting promises kept, in progress, or stalled.

A third story showcased AP’s bench of Washington beat reporters, who collectively told a sweeping account of Trump’s first 100 days. After editing each section, Michael Tackett worked with Katie Vogel to build a design in APNews that allowed readers to click into specific topics without having to scroll through a single long page.

The package was further bolstered by video explainers, a photo gallery, a by-the-numbers breakdown, and fast-moving spot coverage. AP also joined a Reddit AMA alongside other news outlets to field reader questions about the milestone.

Judges praised the project’s creative and accessible design, especially the visualization of AP push alerts — described as a clever transformation of a classic AP strength into something fresh and reader-friendly.

For guiding readers through the head-spinning first 100 days of President Trump’s second term with clarity, authority, and innovation, Lodhi, Sweedler, Gorman, Burnett, Ng, Esomunu, Woodward, Megerian, Vogel, and AP’s Washington team are this week’s Best of AP — First Winner.

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