Prior to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis formally launching his 2024 presidential campaign, most analysts and observers expected him to seriously challenge former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, but that hasn't been the case, at least thus far.

Now just a couple of months after DeSantis first launched, his campaign is already substantially cutting costs, including around a third of its staffers, and hitting the reset button while Trump continues to stand strong far ahead of all other competitors in the GOP electorate, according to the Associated Press.

The rapid retooling of the DeSantis campaign so soon after launch will likely further boost Trump's argument that the governor is not yet ready or experienced enough to lead on the national stage and get things accomplished in the same manner that he is as a former president.

Cutting costs by reducing staffer payroll

Politico reported Tuesday that unnamed advisors to the DeSantis campaign confirmed a major ongoing reshuffling of the campaign that included cutting approximately 38 staffer positions, or around one-third of the campaign's total personnel, to reduce payroll costs and save campaign funds.

That figure reportedly includes the recent loss of two senior campaign advisors as well as the release of 10 staffers a couple of weeks ago that were focused on event planning for the campaign.

The cuts are significant, given that the campaign employed more than 90 staffers at the end of June, and come amid reports that the DeSantis campaign has begun to experience some financial woes in the form of expending cash at a faster rate than it is coming in as well as that most of the governor's donors have already hit the maximum limit on what they can contribute.

Retooling the campaign

However, despite the apparent rough start for Gov. DeSantis, he has not thrown the towel in on his 2024 bid just yet, and Politico reported that while some campaign staffers were being let go, some new staffers were being brought on board and others were being shuffled around or pulling double-duty by accepting more responsibilities.

Further, the campaign has reportedly realigned its messaging to highlight the governor's "insurgent underdog" status in comparison to the former president and made adjustments to its event planning by focusing on smaller gatherings in more intimate settings that both play to the strengths of DeSantis while simultaneously reducing costs and travel expenses.

Generra Peck, the campaign manager for DeSantis, said in a statement, "Following a top-to-bottom review of our organization, we have taken additional, aggressive steps to streamline operations and put Ron DeSantis in the strongest position to win this primary and defeat Joe Biden."

"Gov. DeSantis is going to lead the Great American Comeback and we’re ready to hit the ground running as we head into an important month of the campaign," she added.

Polling doesn't look good for DeSantis right now

Meanwhile, the RealClearPolitics average of polls shows that former President Trump, with around 52.4 percent support, maintains a roughly 34-point lead over Gov. DeSantis, who has around 18.4 percent support in the various 2024 GOP primary polls.

That lead for Trump is more than double the 13-15 point spread between him and DeSantis back in February and March, prior to the launch of the governor's campaign, and the polls clearly show that support for DeSantis has declined since he officially entered the race while Trump's support has increased.

Yet, there is one rather significant factor at play here that the DeSantis campaign has no control over -- but could potentially use to its advantage -- in the form of the mounting criminal indictments against Trump, which at least as of now have only bolstered the former president's base of support due to the widespread perception that the partisan prosecutors aligned against him are driven by purely political motivations.

All of that said, with still around six months to go before primary voters actually begin to cast ballots, a lot can change in this Republican primary contest and DeSantis, though currently mired in a distant second place, is not completely out of the fight yet and could reemerge as a serious contender in the coming months.