Peter Eisler ’85 Wins Pulitzer Prize

Talia Cutler ’27

Editor in Chief

On May 4 2026, the Pulitzer committee selected Peter Eisler ’85, as a recipient for the prize in National Reporting. Pulitzer Prizes are presented each year by Columbia University for achievements in “journalism, arts and letters.” National Reporting is one of twenty-three categories for the Pulitzer Prize. Eisler was a part of a larger investigative team from Reuters who won the prize for a series on President Donald Trump’s political retribution against those who have opposed his presidency, from federal employees to journalists to universities. The series was published over the course of the year and identified over 470 cases of retribution. 

These instances ranged from security clearance revocations and firings for protesting departmental cuts, to the American Accountability Foundation’s “watchlists” for “political ideologues,” which forced one chief federal immigration judge whose photo appeared on a list of “America’s most subversive immigration bureaucrats” to leave the country after she was threatened at her home and called a “terrorist.” 

“I work on an investigative project team. At the beginning of the year, we typically identify a theme or a vein of coverage that we want to focus on and we aim to report stories within that. Trump famously said during his presidential campaign, ‘I will be your retribution.’ That was an often repeated quote, and we wanted to see how that played out in practice,” Eisler told the Tripod in an exclusive interview.

Although he has established himself in the journalism community as an adult, Eisler did not write for the Tripod during his undergraduate career at Trinity, and had no interest in journalism.  As for his career, “I really kind of fell into it,” Eisler said. “When I left Trinity I didn’t have a real plan for what I wanted to do. I spent the first summer after college travelling out west. I did some work for the forest service, I did some construction work and tried to figure out what I could do with my English degree. I was looking at the classified ads in the Hartford Courant, and saw an advertisement for a small weekly community paper in southeast Connecticut looking for a reporter. I didn’t have any clips, but I talked them into giving me a try-out.” Although his lack of journalism experience at the time posed a challenge, Eisler credits his advisor at Trinity, English professor Dirk (Dutch) A. Kuyk Jr., with helping him in the early stages of his career. “[Kuyk] worked in journalism before going into academia and he was able to give me advice on how to do basic news writing,” said Eisler. “It is a fascinating career. I have gotten to visit some really cool places and speak with some incredibly interesting people and cover some exciting events.”

In D.C., Eisler has witnessed firsthand the importance that journalism is playing in today’s political climate: “The presence of misinformation is probably the single greatest challenge facing our democracy. People now have the ability to pick and choose the news that they get, the ability to block out news that they don’t want to hear, opinions that they do not agree with, and feed themselves a steady diet of information that supports what they want to believe. Those things all pose an enormous problem,” he told the Tripod. 

“Lack of news literacy in the younger generation is particularly distressing. I see opinions where people believe that the role of the paper is to support the community and make sure nobody gets upset, arguments that there is no such thing as empirical fact — these opinions are troubling. There is a profound need right now for all colleges and universities to focus on news literacy as a critical, fundamental skill for students. In the age that we are in, turning out people that can be informed, responsible participants in our democracy is perhaps the greatest responsibility that colleges have.” 

In the future, Eisler is hoping to pursue a book project, but says for right now he is focused on his reporting work at Reuters. “I am going to continue to cover the Trump administration. We’re focusing this year on what the administration is doing in an effort to exert more control over U.S. elections. It’s a relevant and important topic with midterms coming up.” 

Eisler extended his hopes for students to recognize the importance of journalism and factual reporting. “It is an exciting and important time for journalism right now. Now more than ever we need people with a passion for journalism and truth telling.” He encourages students to start as soon as possible. “Do not wait to get out of college to start learning the skills you need. Writing for the Tripod is a great way to get started. The place to begin reporting is at the community level.” 

More of Eisler’s reporting can be found at reuters.com.