{"slug": "americans-love-ai-they-don-t-want-the-data-centers-that-power-it", "title": "Americans love AI. They don't want the data centers that power it.", "summary": "More than half of Americans used an AI chatbot in July, yet 70 percent oppose data centers for artificial intelligence in their community, according to Morning Consult and Gallup polls. President Donald Trump, who has embraced data centers for economic and national security reasons, warned communities that resist them risk being 'backwards and poor,' while a senior White House official acknowledged the polling is 'not necessarily great' and that the issue is a major midterm topic.", "body_md": "They're ugly. They're noisy. They sprawl across the landscape. They gobble up energy and water.\n\nAmericans hate data centers and don't trust the Big Tech companies that need them. But they love using the artificial intelligence models they power.\n\nMore than half of Americans used an AI chatbot in July, [according to new data from Morning Consult](https://links.morningconsult.com/s/vb/9W0DbFz2CA0VQx-6ok-4Haj7A2lyKedsQPTfpYk79cJyJSILXly-fBzJTJv8i49Vo88wtCU3sGuEIz6YGycAd4OB-oUyFGUbgWrP6wSRRFGmEzn4oJ9dEWakNyZ3ttMSOWF68Wnb78ciJB6Y-EmRav5_6OCjexp3il68Yg/xt_1gUsX--Sz5Lco_7KroJuTCVpezDxq/23). And it's not just experimenting — Americans are increasingly using AI chatbots multiple times a week. Yet 70 percent of Americans oppose constructing data centers for artificial intelligence in their community, [according to a Gallup poll from May](https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx).\n\nThe disconnect is emerging as one of the central political challenges surrounding the AI boom — and it's one that politicians from both parties must navigate as the midterms approach. The issue has repeatedly shown up as a divisive theme in races across the country.\n\nIt's an especially thorny thicket for President Donald Trump as he tries to lead his party to hold its majority, considering his full-throated embrace of data centers despite their massive energy needs.\n\nOn Monday, Trump warned that communities that resist data center development do so at their economic peril.\n\n\"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 in a Truth Social post](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/31/trump-data-centers-midterms). \"If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.\"\n\nBut even Trump acknowledged last month that the industry may have an image problem.\n\n\"The construction jobs are enormous,\" Trump said at a White House event with crypto executives last month, arguing that if he were a mayor or governor, he would \"absolutely want\" an AI plant or data center in his community because of the jobs they would create and tax revenue they would generate.\n\n\"If you don't take it, you're going to be left behind because there are plenty of places that want it,\" Trump said. \"So I would say that maybe you can use a little public relations help.\"\n\nBehind the scenes, the White House knows data centers aren't popular with all voters. A senior White House official, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said Trump sees polling on the topic and that the president has been told directly that public opinion is a problem.\n\n\"He looks at the polling. He looks at what people are saying,\" [the official told POLITICO](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/02/trumps-seen-the-data-center-polling-and-he-still-supports-them-01061244). \"Polling isn't necessarily great on data centers, but it's incumbent upon us to explain our position. I think that's part of what he was trying to do\" with his recent social media postings exhorting people to embrace them.\n\nThe official acknowledged that data centers have become \"a big topic of conversation when it comes to midterms\" and said Trump wants to make the case for their economic and national security benefits while recognizing that voters have \"real concerns\" about their impact.\n\nTrump has cast the need to accelerate data center development as a national security matter — a way to ensure the U.S. stays ahead of China. His administration has taken action to speed up their deployment but has acknowledged the need to ensure that Americans don't foot the bill for greater electricity costs.\n\nThe White House said in a statement that Trump \"has been clear that he only wants data centers to be built in local communities that want them and all of the significant benefits they bring,\" adding, \"At the same time, the President is also forcing data centers to pay for their own power, water, and other utilities.\"\n\nBen Green, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan who studies the politics and social impacts of technology, was skeptical that better messaging alone could overcome Americans' concerns.\n\n\"The data center resistance is a matter of people responding to real material costs and political realities,\" Green said, pointing to concerns about electricity rates, water use and the relatively small number of permanent jobs some facilities create, adding that the industry has \"really overplayed their hand.\"\n\nBut Mike Madrid, a Republican political consultant, said he sees \"no political downside\" for politicians of either party who come out against data centers.\n\nMadrid argued the intensity of the opposition goes beyond the usual local government fights. Data centers have become a tangible target for broader anxieties about technological change, concentrated wealth and the growing power of companies to collect Americans' data, he said.\n\nAnd that opposition, he added, has led some politicians who once eagerly supported data center development to reverse course.\n\nPennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who previously worked to bring billions of dollars in data center investment to his state, moved last month to impose tougher requirements on new data centers, including greater transparency and local approval, decisions he said he made after hearing constituent concerns.\n\nRepublican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who had similarly touted the development in Texas, has also shifted direction amid opposition, issuing two data center directives and a temporary pause on development in his state.\n\nDespite growing local unrest, the Trump administration is moving ahead with regulations that enable data center build-out. The Environmental Protection Agency [last month proposed](https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2026/07/29/epa-proposal-could-sideline-the-public-on-data-center-permits-01013658) eliminating federal notice and comment requirements for certain \"minor\" air pollution permits, a category that can include backup generators used by data centers.\n\nThe administration says the change would reduce administrative burdens and speed permitting, but environmental groups worry that it will make it harder for communities to oppose projects near them.\n\nTrump and his administration have taken other steps to speed data center development, including an executive order that creates a fast track regime for permitting, directing the Energy Department to identify federal lands where they could be sited, and directing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to consider new rules governing the kinds of energy interconnections — essentially, how a facility is connected to the power grid — that hyperscale data centers need.\n\nThe tension over data centers is particularly acute in parts of the country the White House may have expected would welcome the projects.\n\nIn Hood County, Texas, where Trump won more than 80 percent of the vote in 2024, [residents have packed local government meetings](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/02/texas-data-centers-hood-county-local-control-rural-water-power/) to oppose proposed data centers over concerns about their effects on the area's water, power grid and rural landscape. In response, commissioners have tightened development requirements, including more detailed disclosures about proposed projects' water and energy use.\n\nAnd that opposition has already derailed at least one project. Earlier this summer, Hood County commissioners revoked a previously approved concept plan, 3-2, for a proposed 862-acre data center. The project, known as Fort Spunky, had sought 100 megawatts of electricity and projected using up to 20,000 gallons of water per day.\n\nStephanie Justice, policy communications manager at Americans for Responsible Innovation, who focuses on data centers, said Americans' embrace of AI tools and opposition to nearby data centers aren't necessarily contradictory.\n\n\"Using AI and wanting its infrastructure built responsibly, and people wanting to have a voice, aren't opposites,\" Justice said. \"AI is happening, and people need to be able to know how to use it and integrate it into their careers or daily lives. But they should also be able to have a say in how and where data centers are built.\"\n\nGreen also cautioned against interpreting widespread use of AI tools as widespread support for the technology. As AI becomes integrated into search engines, workplaces and other products people already use, he said, it has become difficult for Americans to not participate.\n\n\"It's not necessarily everyone who uses it regularly is a supporter,\" Green said, noting that workers are oftentimes pressured to become fluent in AI, adding that the technology \"has value,\" and people \"use it because that's available to me. But it's not worth the costs of what data centers are providing.\"\n\nStill, the projects have found support among organized labor, particularly the building trades whose members stand to benefit from the construction projects required to build and maintain them — a particular challenge for Democrats, who consider unions a core constituency.\n\nDan Diorio, the executive vice president of state policy and government affairs at the Data Center Coalition trade group, suggested that the economic benefits of a data center near a community extend well beyond initial construction jobs. That includes, he said, substantial tax revenue that funds schools, while supporting millions of jobs across construction, manufacturing, technology and local services.\n\nBut he acknowledged that the rapid build-out has raised \"important questions about land use, energy and water,\" adding that the industry needs more \"transparent, proactive engagement\" with communities.\n\nAlthough data center development can mean significant investment and construction employment while it is being built, the number of permanent jobs can be far smaller than initial promises once a facility is active. One of the proposed data centers in Hood County projected a peak construction workforce of 2,000 people, but a permanent workforce of 200.\n\nEven if those projects ultimately deliver jobs and investment, Madrid was skeptical that politicians who block them today will pay a price years from now. In local development fights, he said, \"there's no future constituency to be concerned about.\"\n\nIf the U.S. eventually found itself at a competitive disadvantage with China because it failed to build enough AI infrastructure, Madrid said voters would still be unlikely to hold a local politician responsible. \"No one's going to suffer at the polls because you were against AI data centers at this moment in time,\" he said.\n\n*This story originally *appeared __on POLITICO__*and is courtesy of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, which harnesses the resources of the company's newsrooms to publish ambitious scoops, investigations, interviews, opinion pieces, and analysis. It allows journalists — including those from POLITICO, Business Insider, WELT, BILD, Onet, and Fakt — to collaborate on major stories for an international audience of hundreds of millions across platforms.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/americans-love-ai-they-don-t-want-the-data-centers-that-power-it", "canonical_source": "https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-love-ai-they-dont-want-the-data-centers-2026-9", "published_at": "2026-09-02 21:13:24+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-02 21:23:48.535556+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["Morning Consult", "Gallup", "Donald Trump", "White House", "POLITICO", "Truth Social"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/americans-love-ai-they-don-t-want-the-data-centers-that-power-it", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/americans-love-ai-they-don-t-want-the-data-centers-that-power-it.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/americans-love-ai-they-don-t-want-the-data-centers-that-power-it.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/americans-love-ai-they-don-t-want-the-data-centers-that-power-it.jsonld"}}