Trump Says Communities That Oppose Data Centers Will Be ‘Backwards and Poor’
President Trump took to Truth Social on August 31, 2026, warning that American communities pushing back against new data center construction risk becoming "backwards and poor," reigniting a fight over the AI building boom that has spread into local zoning battles nationwide.
The post came as opposition to data centers has surged across the country, with residents citing water use, noise, and rising electricity bills as reasons to block new facilities in their towns. A single medium-sized data center can consume roughly 110 million gallons of water a year, comparable to what a town of 1,000 households uses annually, a figure frequently cited by critics pushing back on new proposals. Protesters have also shown up at political events tied to the issue, including demonstrations near one of Trump's rallies in Michigan earlier this year.
What Trump Posted
"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. "If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign."
He went further, framing opposition as a gift to a geopolitical rival. "If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame. China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement," he wrote, arguing that abundant alternative sites exist for the facilities if any single community says no.
Vance Points to Electricity Costs
Vice President JD Vance addressed the backlash separately, speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on the same day. He acknowledged that roughly 99% of local opposition traces back to rising utility and electricity costs tied to the facilities' massive power draw, and suggested that requiring companies to build their own power generation alongside new data centers, paired with deregulation, could ease the tension. It was a notably direct admission from within the administration that the economic case for data centers and the lived experience of nearby residents are not currently lining up.
That admission underscores a real tension inside the administration's own argument: officials are simultaneously promoting data centers as an economic necessity while acknowledging they are already raising costs for the households living near them.
Republicans Are Divided on the Issue
The data center fight has exposed cracks within Trump's own party ahead of the 2026 midterms. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has privately warned that the backlash could hurt Senate candidates in competitive races, including Ohio's John Husted. Trump also criticized Texas Governor Greg Abbott's decision to pause new data center projects in the state, calling it "a mistake."
Democratic leaders have seized on the divide, arguing that unchecked data center growth is driving up costs for ordinary Americans at a moment when affordability is already a dominant political issue heading into next year's elections.
Public Opinion Has Turned Sharply Against Data Centers
Trump's comments run counter to where public opinion currently sits. A Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans oppose data center construction in their local area, with 48% saying they strongly oppose it. That opposition is notably higher than resistance to building nuclear power plants locally, which only 53% of respondents opposed in the same survey.
With more than $700 billion a year now flowing into data center construction from major tech companies racing to build out AI infrastructure, the fight between federal ambitions and local resistance shows no signs of cooling, and Trump's latest remarks suggest he intends to keep pressing communities to accept the trade-off rather than adjust course.
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