"Let data reign": Trump and AI investors wage campaign to save data centers
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President Trump has a new message for Americans rebelling over the nation's data-center boom: Get over it.
- "If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame," Trump warned Monday.
Why it matters: Nine weeks out from the midterms, the president is charging into a fight Republicans have been scrambling to escape — staking his political capital on one of the most toxic issues in the country.
What they're saying: "The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
- "If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign," he added, drawing rare frustration and confusion from his MAGA followers.
The big picture: Trump's blunt intervention comes as the AI industry mounts a far more disciplined campaign to persuade data-center skeptics rather than browbeat them.
- Build American AI, an advocacy group linked to the pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future, is ready to unload a $50 million war chest to defend data centers in key states, starting in Kansas, Ohio and Wisconsin.
- The bipartisan group is also launching a new super PAC for candidates aligned with its agenda, betting that jobs, lower taxes and a new industrial revival can overcome a furious grassroots backlash.
Zoom in: Prominent investor Gavin Baker laid out his own six-part case for data centers on X, which was quickly amplified by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and other tech leaders.
- 💧 Water: Newer facilities can sharply reduce freshwater use through closed-loop cooling and recycled water, Baker argues. He says those systems should be required for new projects.
- 💸 Taxes: Data centers can generate enormous property-tax revenue for local governments, Baker says, potentially outweighing the sales-tax exemptions that have drawn criticism.
- 💪 Jobs: The buildout is driving demand for electricians, plumbers, welders, HVAC technicians and contractors, making building-trade unions some of the industry's most important allies.
- ⚡️ Power: Baker points to new large-load tariffs and ratepayer-protection agreements as a way to ensure data centers, rather than existing customers, pay for the new generation and grid capacity they require.
- ☀️ Environment: Baker argues that natural gas, renewables and batteries can meet surging demand now, with data centers ultimately moving toward solar and storage.
- 🌆 Towns: Data centers can turn struggling communities into beneficiaries of the AI boom. Baker points to Quincy, Washington, where they now account for more than half of the local property-tax base.
Reality check: The industry faces a steep uphill climb, particularly with Democrats already seizing on Trump's broadside to paint AI as a billionaire-backed project being forced on ordinary Americans.
- The polling is brutal: 61% of Americans oppose building a new data center in their community, including 54% of Republicans, according to an Annenberg survey.
- Republicans in key battlegrounds have spent weeks recalibrating their positions on data centers as the issue turned politically toxic.
The bottom line: Trump's intervention risks blowing up that escape route.
