(CNN) — If there’s a true populist issue built for this moment in time, it might be opposition to AI data centers. Lawmakers and candidates from both parties across states are increasingly positioning themselves as critics of data center proliferation.
And recent primary results suggest it’s a pretty potent issue.
There is, however, one big exception to the growing political stampede away from data centers: President Donald Trump and his administration officials, who are bear-hugging them.
It’s merely the latest political head-scratcher from the president, given the growing volume of polls showing just how much Americans hate data centers and overwhelmingly don’t seem to want them in their communities.
Trump’s defenses of data centers have grown substantially in recent weeks. He’s not only pitched them as vital to competing with China on artificial intelligence, but as win-wins for the US communities that welcome them.
Trump loves data centers
Back in March, the administration debuted an initiative called the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, which aimed to get developers to voluntarily promise that data center construction wouldn’t raise people’s energy bills.
But even at the time, Trump downplayed the need for his executive action. He suggested data centers weren’t really raising energy bills in the first place.
“They need some PR help, because people think that if a data center goes in there, electricity prices are going to go up,” Trump said.
Last month, he sharply criticized Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for signing an executive order halting the construction of new data centers. Trump on social media called them “big, strong, bold, and Money Machines” and “Cash Cows, with Lower Taxes and Record Setting Jobs.”
Last week, he told Fox News that “any community that turns down AI is making a big mistake,” claiming data centers would reduce taxes and make property values go up.
He called it “a tremendous thing” and even seemed to marvel at how anybody could oppose them.
“It’s almost like there’s a campaign against, you know, data centers,” the president said.
And then in an interview with Punchbowl News later in the week, he took aim at GOP-controlled Texas, which moved to more strongly regulate data center construction.
Trump said data centers could be “bigger than oil.”
“I don’t think they’re unsightly,” he added. “I mean, I’m looking at some of these data centers — the most incredible buildings I’ve ever seen. They go for two-and-a-half, three miles.”
But the American people really don’t like them
Virtually everything Trump is saying is at odds with where the American people are.
Americans opposed the construction of new data centers 45%-16% in a Reuters-Ipsos poll in June.
And the margins grew significantly when it came to building them in their communities. The margin against grew to 59%-10% when the data centers were within 10 miles of the person’s home. Gallup in March showed 7 in 10 Americans opposed building data centers “in your area.”
The passion is clearly on the side of the critics.
Only between 3% and 7% strongly supported the construction of data centers in their areas in the above polls, while between 44% to 48% strongly opposed them.
While 61% of Americans said data centers were necessary in the Reuters poll, 77% wanted them to be built in remote areas away from communities.
Despite Trump’s claims that data centers are economic boons and potentially “bigger than oil,” just 50% of Americans think they create jobs and are good for the economy. And only 1 in 6 feel that way strongly, saying that describes data centers “very” or “extremely” well.
Despite Trump’s claim that data centers aren’t or wouldn’t make electricity more expensive, 77% said they were doing just that in Reuters/Ipsos polling earlier in June, while two-thirds said the same in a March Pew Research Center poll.
And finally, all told, Americans said by a whopping 71%-29% margin that the costs of data centers outweighed the benefits, according a Marquette Law School poll in May.
Most notably: All of these polls suggest it’s a remarkably bipartisan aversion. Republicans are somewhat more likely to see the benefits of data centers and welcome them in their communities, but they’re strongly against them, too.
The bipartisan campaigns against and efforts to rein in data centers
That bipartisanship has made itself clear in how the issue has been addressed across the country — and not just in New York and Texas. Bills banning data center construction have been proposed in 15 states, spanning from deep red to deep blue.
The issue also featured prominently in both parties’ gubernatorial primaries in Kansas last week, with critics winning both primaries. (The Democrat who won, state Sen. Cindy Holscher, disowned a previous vote in favor of data center construction and strongly backed a moratorium.) Both parties’ gubernatorial nominees in Ohio also back a moratorium.
Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and House candidate William Lawrence played up the issue on their way to primary victories in Michigan last week. And Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong looks to do the same Tuesday after making the issue her calling card.
They’ve all seemed to sense the rare issue that truly galvanizes — both because it directly impacts Americans in their communities and, they worry, is exacerbating their already increasing costs.
But Trump seems to be making a different calculation.
The-CNN-Wire
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