Donald Trump’s America

From the moment he rode down a golden escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015 to announce he was officially running for president, Donald Trump been an unconventional candidate.

Written off as a joke almost from the start by the GOP establishment, the celebrity businessman nonetheless persevered, mounting an insurgent campaign that surprised almost everybody and left a bitterly divided Republican Party in its wake.

Trump eschewed the normal path to the presidency, opting to hold massive rallies with thousands of people instead of the usual small meet-and-greets that many in early voting states prefer. Along the way, he survived gaffes and political missteps that would have ended any other candidate’s White House aspirations. His controversial views on immigration and heated rhetoric on Muslims and race have prompted critics to describe him as the most polarizing candidate in a generation.

For nearly a year, I’ve covered Donald Trump, pursuing the candidate through small towns in Iowa to even the rolling dunes of his golf courses overseas. But sometimes it takes more than words to capture the unique phenomenon of his campaign — the quirkiness of the candidate, who claims to despise the media but can’t stop talking to them; his rabid supporters who see him as someone who can rise above politics as usual to turn the country around; and the many protesters who see him as dangerous to America’s future.

At every stop, I’ve used my iPhone to capture the most unusual campaign I ever covered, trying to offer a lens into Donald Trump’s America.

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