Trump’s Embrace of AI Data Centers Adds to GOP’s Midterm Peril

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump's fervent support for artificial intelligence data centers has put him at odds with voters who increasingly oppose them and comes despite direct warnings that his stance threatens to deepen Republicans' peril in the November midterm elections.

Over the past few months, political strategists have warned administration officials they were in danger of losing the public opinion war over data centers, people familiar with the matter said. Recent polling has shown around seven in 10 Americans don't want the facilities built near them, and Democratic candidates have sought to outflank their GOP opponents by tying rapid growth in AI infrastructure to voter concerns about the cost of living.

Trump has frequently boasted of American AI prowess and asserted that speedy development of the technology is essential to "beat China." Yet administration officials were advised that the president needed to focus more on AI's benefits, including for voters whose jobs might be at risk, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Rather than adjusting his approach, Trump has doubled down, claiming on social media this week that the only reason communities would oppose data centers is if they want to be "backwards and poor" and calling on the public to "let data reign." On Friday, the president amplified his argument, framing it as a choice for localities.

"If you want to pay lower taxes, if you want to create tremendous wealth, if you want your house to be more valuable and everything else, you're going to want a data center," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "If you want to go through poverty, crime and squalor, I would say don't approve data centers."

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick chalked up opposition to "propaganda by our adversaries" and said the benefits to communities are "obvious." Trump's former AI czar, David Sacks, asserted that "misinformation" was to blame for the backlash and said "no one is trying to force these data centers down anyone's throats."

The dynamic shows how AI's biggest boosters, including Trump, are confronting an awkward bind: The technology they've championed as essential to US economic growth depends on a massive buildout of data centers that has become deeply unpopular in cities and towns facing higher power bills, strained electric grids and hulking new infrastructure.