Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a cheeky response on Monday when asked about President Trump’s recent comments that opponents of data centers want to be “backwards and poor.”
“I mean, how about we put one in Mar-a-Lago?” she told MeidasTouch. “I love that. Let’s put a data center up in Mar-a-Lago, and we’ll see how backwards and poor he is in response to that.”
Earlier that day, the president spoke out on Truth Social about the increasingly vocal opposition to data centers ahead of the midterms.
“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 said. “If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign.”
“The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them,” he added. “If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame. China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement. Actually, they can’t believe it is happening!”
open image in galleryAOC isn’t the only one in Washington who has disagreed with the president.
“I guess I’m backwards and poor,” Republican Rep. Tim Burchett, typically a close ally of the president, told MeidasTouch. “They’ve done a poor job of educating the public on those things.”
Data centers have long been a feature of the American landscape, but they have taken on new political salience with the rise of artificial intelligence and the so-called “hyperscale” data centers required to power popular services like ChatGPT and Claude.
open image in galleryWhile the Trump 2024 campaign counted support from many within Silicon Valley and the AI industry, voters have been more ambivalent about data centers than the administration.
Most Americans oppose building new data centers in their communities, a late August Economist / YouGov poll found, with just 24 percent of respondents agreeing new data centers were very or somewhat good for the country.
The White House has pushed to expedite permitting and limit environmental regulations that would slow the data center buildout, arguing AI infrastructure is a key source of jobs and U.S. competitiveness in the tech race against China.
“President Trump’s bold leadership is turning data centers into engines of growth and opportunity for communities across the country that want them, all while cementing America’s dominance over China in the global AI race,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told The Independent. “By requiring data centers to pay for their own power, water, and utilities, the President has ensured the American people never foot the bill for private companies’ profits. President Trump will continue leveraging the data center boom to deliver real benefits for working families and small businesses.”
However, in states and jurisdictions across the country, data centers have become increasingly fraught politically. This summer, even reliably red and pro-business Texas issued an executive order pausing data center construction.
The pushback to data centers comes amid broader concerns about the impact of AI on jobs, culture and the environment, issues that are all likely to inform the vote in November.