It’s no secret that data centers have become a massive sore point for a vast swathe of the American electorate.
Poll after poll has found that the facilities are immensely unpopular, a key bipartisan issue that could prove significant during this year’s midterm elections. The situation has become so heated there have already been at least 37 arrests stemming from protests against the projects this year.
Broadly speaking, critics take issue with the sheer amount of space data centers take up, how much air and noise pollution they generate, concerns that they’re driving up electricity prices — all while barely making a difference job creation. Moratoriums on new data center projects like the New York governor Kathy Hochul imposed last month are currently a bipartisan slam dunk.
Yet in his great political wisdom, president Donald Trump is siding firmly with villains of the day.
“I saw Texas the other day sort of is against data centers,” he told Punchbowl News in a new interview. “I think it’s a mistake.”
Trump was likely referring to the gold rush-like scramble to construct new data centers in the Lone Star State suffering a brutal collision with reality. Last week, governor Greg Abbott announced a pause on new approvals on the projects to save Texas’ already shaky power grid from collapsing in on itself.
The president gushed over data centers being some of the “most incredible buildings I’ve ever seen” — while wind mills with far smaller footprints are “ugly losers” — and argued that they’re “tremendously important for the economics” and “income.” Trump went as far as to argue that data centers “could be bigger than oil,” raging that we “can’t let China beat us at this.”
The outburst builds on a sense that Trump is increasingly a political outsider in the US. His approval ratings have hit historic lows, showing widespread disillusionment with the Iran war, fluctuating gas prices, and a growing affordability crisis.
Trump has maintained what’s been criticized as a “too cozy relationship” with the tech industry. In return, AI tech leaders, many of whom have made sizeable donations to Trump’s political efforts, have enjoyed a largely regulation-free policy environment.
The reality is that the benefits of data centers are dicey. Critics argue that the resource-hogging facilities only line the pockets of a few multibillionaires and most of the times aren’t accompanied by an economic boom or spike in employment in places where they’re being built.
Instead, researchers warn they’re leading to a significant rise in greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in Texas, where many are using gas-burning backup generators to stay online.
Meanwhile, those who refuse contracts for their land be used to construct new data centers are being hailed as folk heroes.
Naturally, Trump took full credit for the AI boom in the US.
“And if we turn off on data centers, we turn off on AI,” he told Punchbowl. “We are leading because of me. We’re leading AI. Remember this. I came up with an idea that was a great idea. Nobody thought it was serious.”
More on data centers: The Number of Regular People Being Arrested for Protesting Data Centers Is Astounding