What is happening to Donald Trump in terms of the way he's being reported on and cast with the media is the way every Republican presidential candidate has been treated in my life.
I am sure it has been done with less, but you should be prepared to write and throw away a million words of finished material. By finished, I mean completed, done, ready to submit, and written as well as you know how at the time you wrote it. You may be ashamed of it later, but that's another story.