U.S. President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on August 10, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Monday slammed communities that oppose new data centers as Republicans face voter backlash against the project ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“The only reason communities across America don’t want data centers is if they ultimately want to be backward and poor,” President Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“If they want to be successful and rich with much lower taxes and jobs here and there, let them have data governance,” the president said.
“The good news is that there are many other places that want data centers. If we kill the golden goose, you only have yourself to blame. China can’t be any happier with this anti-data center movement. In fact, they can’t believe it’s happening!”
Trump’s post came nearly a week after a memo issued by the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned that “unless voters’ perceptions of data centers are quickly revised, opposition to data centers will spread far beyond Ohio.”
The NRSC announced that private polls in the state show Republican Sen. Jon Husted in a “death battle” against Democratic challenger Sherrod Brown in the special election to fill the unexpired term in the seat vacated by Vice President J.D. Vance.
In May, Gallup announced that a March survey found that “seven in 10 Americans oppose building local artificial intelligence data centers, including nearly half, 48%, who strongly oppose it.”
On August 28, Wolf Research released a report saying, “In nearly every meeting we’ve had with investors over the past month or so, we’ve been asked what the voter backlash against data centers will be.”
“The pace and scale of the backlash has been truly breathtaking and we have never seen anything like it,” the report said. “Over the past 12 months, across party lines, net support for building local data centers (DCs) has declined by 60 points.”
The upcoming midterm elections will decide which party will control both houses of Congress. Republicans hold a slim majority in the House and a 53-47 majority in the Senate.
AI data centers house computing equipment used to train and operate artificial intelligence models developed by companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
The data center construction boom has sparked a backlash in communities across the country, with opponents raising concerns about electricity costs, demand, water use and other impacts on communities.
In an Aug. 18 memo, the NRSC detailed how the issue is impacting the Ohio Senate race, warning that Americans’ “current perception of data centers is negative.”
“Private polling has been consistent, and when voters hear about Mr. Brown’s position and record, Mr. Husted regresses. That remains the path of this race,” the memo said. “The new element (and new problem) is the data center.
“Ohio is one of the leaders in building these AI factories,” the NRSC said. “Brown has made opposition to them central to his campaign against Husted. Brown is using it because it works.”
“Data centers, more than anything else, are the anchor around Mr. Husted’s neck in this campaign. If he loses and data centers are held accountable, politicians across the country will take notice. And they won’t go near the next one.”
