President Donald Trump has a message for American communities fighting the construction of massive data centers: embrace them or risk getting left behind.
In a Truth Social post today, Trump lashed out at the growing opposition to data center development across the United States. Rather than simply arguing that the facilities are necessary for artificial intelligence and other technology, the president suggested communities rejecting them are effectively choosing poverty.
“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.
Trump argued that communities accepting data centers can expect jobs, lower taxes, and greater prosperity. He described the facilities as a “Golden Goose” and warned that places turning them away will have themselves to blame if they miss out on the economic benefits.
“If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign,” Trump wrote. “The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them. If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.”
Trump also tied the increasingly contentious domestic debate over data centers to America’s technological competition with China.
“China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement. Actually, they can’t believe it is happening!” he wrote.
The comments arrive as data centers become an increasingly contentious political issue across the country. The artificial intelligence boom requires enormous amounts of computing power, leading technology companies and developers to pursue huge new facilities capable of housing the servers and other infrastructure needed to train and operate AI models.
The economic argument in favor of these projects is straightforward. Building data centers can create construction jobs, generate tax revenue, and bring enormous private investments into communities that might otherwise struggle to attract major technology projects. Supporters also argue that the United States cannot expect to lead the AI race without dramatically expanding the physical infrastructure behind it.
The opposition, however, is not simply about people being afraid of technology. Residents and local governments have raised questions about electricity demand, water consumption, noise, land use, tax incentives, and whether the number of permanent jobs created after construction justifies the resources these facilities consume.
Those concerns have become difficult for politicians to ignore. Data center restrictions, moratoriums, and other proposals have emerged in states and municipalities around the country, while opposition has crossed traditional political lines. Republicans, Democrats, environmental groups, rural residents, and other constituencies have all pushed back against individual projects for different reasons.
That makes Trump’s message particularly interesting. Instead of acknowledging those concerns and arguing that the economic benefits outweigh them, he is framing opposition to data centers as a threat to American prosperity and potentially an advantage for China.
There is little question that America will need more computing infrastructure if the current AI expansion continues. The harder question is who should pay for the electricity infrastructure, how much water these facilities should consume, what tax incentives they deserve, and what communities should receive in return.
Calling people “backwards and poor” might get their attention. Convincing them that a gigantic warehouse filled with servers will actually make their town richer could prove considerably more difficult.
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