DES MOINES, IOWA -- Donald Trump seems to be getting exactly what he wants, with his absence leaving a sleepy debate in his wake.
Trump's move to take his circus across town has sucked much of the oxygen out of Fox News's debate, with policy taking center stage and few of the flashy and dramatic exchanges that dominated past debates.
With Trump leading most recent Iowa polls heading into Monday night's all-important caucuses, a forgettable night without a game-changer couldn't work better for The Donald.
With Trump on the sidelines, the most heated exchanges came from Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio as they sparred over their immigration reform views — and with Cruz complaining once again about the debate moderators.
But they paled in comparison to the Trump-on-Cruz onstage brawl just two weeks ago in South Carolina. And a half-empty reporter filing room (the other half had ditched the debate to be across town with Trump) reflected the reflected how much of the spotlight Trump took with him with his boycott.
Early data from Google indicates that Trump's event at Drake University was capturing a lot more interest than the GOP field's staid policy discussion. Just like in most of the earlier GOP debates, Trump has consistently been the most-searched candidate even without a podium onstage...
trends.embed.renderWidget("US_cu_5NL_ZVIBAABJNM_en", "fe_line_chart_fd50cd89-dd30-4964-b348-95ca17093f26", {});
...even though searches for a debate live-stream outnumbered those for Trump's show.
And Twitter seemed unimpressed.
Watching the #GOPDebate without Trump is like watching #HarryPotter without Voldemort— Todd C (@toddcaiazzo) January 29, 2016
@FoxNews Flip over to the #gopdebate asking if Americans should pay to bail out Puerto Rico *immediately turns the channel back to Trump*— Rob Christie (@RobChristie1) January 29, 2016
Once the ratings from the debate and Trump's event come out, and after Iowa voters have their say on Monday, we'll know more about who paid attention to what. But at first blush it seems like Trump's decision to skip the debate took all of the air out of the room.