Trump: Data-Center Opponents Want to 'End Up Backwards and Poor'

Trump used his Truth Social account on Monday to warn Americans opposing data centers that they "want to end up being backwards and poor," Gizmodo's Matt Novak reports. Pew Research puts opposition to data-center construction in one's own community at 71%, making the projects less popular than nuclear plants.

Trump's framing was blunt. "If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign," he wrote, before adding: "If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame. China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement."

The China line is already causing Republican discomfort. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has spent years courting the industry, recently acknowledged that "Chinese propaganda is not the reason" Americans oppose data centers. In Utah, two anti-data-center groups have sued investor Kevin O'Leary for defamation after he alleged Chinese funding behind local protests and later admitted he "simply doesn't have any evidence."

Even Trump's own Truth Social audience pushed back in the replies. "What we are against is our electric bill shooting through the roof and our water supply going low," one user wrote. Vice President JD Vance tried to reframe the debate: "If you build a data center, you should be putting power back into the grid, not taking it out. If that is happening, I don't think data centers are that controversial."

Novak's read: "most Republicans know this is a losing issue for them." It's the latest entry in what has become a steady beat of AI infrastructure reporting on our tracker, which has logged 443 stories over the last 90 days.