Key facts
- President Donald Trump claimed a "sick conspiracy" against AI and data centers exists.
- Trump asserted the U.S. has regulatory and criminal power over AI companies.
- FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson expressed suspicion about AI companies seeking antitrust exemptions while also lobbying for new regulations.
President Donald Trump stated that a "sick conspiracy" against artificial intelligence and data centers exists, asserting that the U.S. has the power to regulate and prosecute AI companies. His administration officials were advised that the president needed to focus more on AI’s benefits, including for voters whose jobs might be at risk.
Trump has frequently boasted of American AI prowess and asserted that speedy development of the technology is essential to “beat China.” However, his fervent support for AI data centers has put him at odds with voters who increasingly oppose them. Recent polling shows around seven in 10 Americans do not want the facilities built near them. Democratic candidates have sought to tie the rapid growth in AI infrastructure to voter concerns about the cost of living.
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.
Separately, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson said on Tuesday that "everyone should be deeply suspicious" about AI companies seeking antitrust exemptions while also lobbying for new regulation. Ferguson noted that he was expressing his personal opinion, and that President Donald Trump would set AI policy for the federal government. "I will say generally, though, that if companies are simultaneously coming to Washington and asking for a host of regulations and an antitrust exemption, all of my alarm bells go off," he said. "They're asking for barriers to entry that will insulate their incumbency from challenge. And I think if you combine that with the requested antitrust exemption, everyone should be deeply suspicious about this," he added.