From the fake campaign trail to the real “Ivanka Voter.”

BuzzFeed News was the first to get the biggest story about Donald Trump wrong, with a mocking prediction he'd never actually run. And we were, I think, among the first to really get the story right, as our reporters kept their eyes wide open to a candidate who would smash American democratic norms and who would, in particular, vault the high bar to calling a public figure a liar.

Many BuzzFeed News reporters have covered Trump and his movement, the central and surprising story of 2016, and one that — win or lose — we will be reckoning with for years to come. We've broken stories of the campaign's craziest moments (remember the great Breitbart meltdown of March 2016?); ones that feel like hallucinations (the secret Times tape!); and ones that the nominee could never shake, like his support for the Iraq war. And our breaking news reporters have been all over the eye-opening day-to-day on the Trump train.

Here are some of the stories that can be read the day before the election to tell the story of this crazy year. They include McKay Coppins' rich, explanatory profiles of Trump and his "yes men" from the inside; Rosie Gray's narrative of the marginal figures and ideas who took over the Republican Party, and how; and a series of tour-de-force pieces of reporting from our investigative team. Those indelible images include the console at Mar-a-Lago where Trump allegedly listened in on phone calls, and the specter of him barging into a dressing room full of teenagers.

So here's Trump:

36 Hours on the Fake Campaign Trail With Donald Trump (February 2014)

Ever since the last presidential election — during which Trump strung along the press for months as he feigned interest in jumping into the GOP primary — many in the media have soured on his political sideshow. Covering Trump’s various stunts and inflammatory comments feels increasingly like a chore, akin to donning a network-branded parka during a snowstorm and shouting into the camera about a predictable phenomenon that viewers somehow still find surprising. Trump’s supposed political aspirations, in particular, inflict upon reporters made to cover them a special sort of journalistic indignity; it’s like hyping the “storm of the century” before a single flake has fallen.

I, of course (writes McKay Coppins) am part of the problem. I came to Manchester on the promise that I would be able to catch a ride on Trump’s private jet back to New York (where a real-life blizzard, it turns out, is descending on the city), for the purpose of pressing him on why he is so intent on continuing this charade. But what I found was a man startled by his suddenly fading relevance — and consumed by a desperate need to get it back.

John Gara / BuzzFeed News

The Real Media Machine Behind Trump: Conservative Talk Radio (August 2015)

For weeks, some of the biggest names in conservative talk radio — Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage — have praised Trump and his bashing of the politically correct left and Republican establishment.

But the conservative talkers are also pushing his rhetoric on immigration and his vow to revoke birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants — and delivering that content straight to their millions of listeners.

Unlike cable news, conservative talk radio speaks directly to the disaffected conservative base fueling Trump’s rise. Rush Limbaugh’s is still the most-listened-to talk radio program in the country, pulling in 13 and a quarter million weekly listeners, according to estimates in Talkers magazine, an industry publication (Limbaugh himself has estimated it in the past at 20 million). Talkers puts Sean Hannity in second, with 12.5 million. Mark Levin ties with Glenn Beck (a Trump critic) for fourth, with 7 million. Savage has more than 5 million, according to Talkers’ estimates.

Scott Olson / Getty Images

How 2015 Fueled The Rise Of The Freewheeling, White Nationalist Alt Right Movement

The movement probably doesn’t look like anything you’ve seen before. The alt right is loosely connected, and mostly online. The white nationalists of the alt right share more in common with European far-right movements than American ones. This is a movement that draws upon relatively obscure political theories like neoreaction or the “Dark Enlightenment,” which reject the premises on which modernity is built, like democracy and egalitarianism. But it’s not all so high-minded as that. Take a glance at the #altright hashtag on Twitter or at The Right Stuff, an online hub of the movement, and you’ll find a penchant for aggressive rhetoric and outright racial and anti-Semitic slurs, often delivered in the arch, ironic tones common to modern internet discourse. Trump is a hero on the alt right and the subject of many adoring memes and tweets.

In short, it’s white supremacy perfectly tailored for our times: 4chan-esque racist rhetoric combined with a tinge of Silicon Valley–flavored philosophizing, all riding on the coattails of the Trump boom.

Rebecca Cook / Reuters

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