The Daily Beast contended on Friday that former President Donald Trump has not campaigned all that much in the last 60 days, but is still winning the 2024 Republican nomination race easily, according to polls. 

Writer Alex Nguyen pointed out that Trump skipped the first GOP debate with no repercussions and plans to skip the second one this Wednesday.

Mostly, he has stayed at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey and posted on Truth Social while he fights a slew of criminal charges that his likely chief general election opponent, President Joe Biden's DOJ has thrown at him, along with two sets of state charges in New York and Georgia.

Paradoxically, the criminal charges have only made Trump more popular with GOP voters, most of whom are angry at Trump's treatment by Biden's DOJ and deeply partisan state prosecutors.

Thousands of social posts, few events

The Washington Post numbered Trump's Truth Social posts in the thousands, but said he held and appeared at fewer campaign events than his rivals, all of whom are polling between 20 and 50 points behind the frontrunner.

While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has crisscrossed Iowa and showed up at hundreds of events, Trump has only done about 60, and not all of those have been in Iowa.

Among the 60 events Trump's campaign has called campaign appearances since May, at least six of them were actually Saudi-backed golf tournaments.

Still, reports were that Trump's Iowa State Fair flyover trumped DeSantis's appearance, where protesters told him to go back to Florida and a plane's banner ad read, "Be likeable, Ron!"

While the Post hopes Trump's scarcity will eventually end up hurting him, it doesn't seem to be doing so.

Trump formula working

Obviously, Trump's attacks on DeSantis are juvenile and lack any substance, but they seem to be working: DeSantis has lost almost half of the 31% support he had when he jumped into the race in May.

If four indictments aren't going to dissuade his base from supporting him for the GOP nomination next year, it's unclear that anything would.

His promises that he's going to Make American Even Greater this time around and mocking of anyone who opposes him appear to be a winning formula for him.

Trump did say he will campaign more as the election gets closer, with at least four events scheduled in Iowa by the end of October.

Top advisor Jason Miller pointed out that Trump gets much bigger audiences for each event than other GOP candidates, which means he can do far fewer events and still have a larger reach.

“Not all campaign events are created equal, and President Trump’s event in South Carolina that drew 75,000 people is a greater audience than every single DeSanctimonious or Always Back Down event of 2023 combined,” Miller said in reference to a July event in Pickens, S.C. President Trump is drawing 75,000 people to rallies. Ron DeSanctimonious has to wear a name tag on his sweater vest so anyone even knows who he is.”