Trump claims 'sick conspiracy' against AI, data centers

Rather than adjusting his approach, Trump has doubled down, claiming on social media 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 U.S. 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.