Journalist Trump Called "A Nasty Guy" Just Won The Pulitzer

Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold was a thorn in Donald Trump's side throughout the entire presidential campaign. And he probably deserved it just for getting the scoop on the infamous Access Hollywood tape.

But he also conducted a lengthy and fruitless hunt for an actual charitable donation made by Donald Trump. He used pen and paper to track his search, which led to Trump calling him "a nasty guy."

The Pulitzer is a set of prizes awarded for written excellence in the fields of newspaper, magazine and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the U.S. Joseph Pulitzer established the prize in 1917 after having made a fortune as a newspaper publisher. Columbia University, which named its journalism school after him, administers the prize each year. Twenty category winners receive $15,000 and a certificate. The winner of the public service journalism category gets a gold medal.

Fahrenthold reacted to the prize in typically understated fashion, a newspaper reporter to his core.

He wrote at length about his year covering the candidate in a piece published December.

"The point of my stories was not to defeat Trump," Fahrenthold wrote. "The point was to tell readers the facts about this man running for president. How reliable was he at keeping promises? How much moral responsibility did he feel to help those less fortunate than he?"

Read the story of his full year covering Trump here. His Pulitzer-winning package is covered at length here.

The full list of winners below.

Public Service: New York Daily News and ProPublica

Breaking News Reporting: Staff of the East Bay Times

Investigative Reporting: Eric Eyre of the Charleston Gazette-Mail

Explanatory Reporting: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald

Local Reporting: The Salt Lake Tribune Staff

National Reporting: David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post

International Reporting: Staff of The New York Times

Feature Writing: C.J. Chivers of The New York Times

Commentary: Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal

Criticism: Hilton Als of The New Yorker

Editorial Writing: Art Cullen of The Storm Lake Times, Storm Lake, IA

Editorial Cartooning: Jim Morin of Miami Herald

Breaking News Photography: Daniel Berehulak, freelance photographer, for work in The New York Times

Feature Photography: E. Jason Wambsgans of Chicago Tribune

Fiction: The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead

Drama: Sweat, by Lynn Nottage

History: Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, by Heather Ann Thompson

Biography: The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between, by Hisham Matar

Poetry: Olio, by Tyehimba Jess (Wave Books)

General Nonfiction: Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond (Crown)

Music: Angel’s Bone, by Du Yun