Protests against AI data centers play into China's hands, Trump says

President Trump said on Truth Social that protests against AI data centers in the US play into China's hands, warning that communities rejecting such facilities would become 'backwards and poor.' A Gallup poll from March found 71% of Americans oppose data centers near their homes, and Data Center Watch reported that grassroots campaigns blocked or delayed at least 75 projects worth roughly $130 billion in the first quarter of 2026. Trump's comments come as China plans to nearly double its data center capacity over the next five years, and a congressional committee has called for an investigation into claims that China is fueling domestic opposition.

Protests against AI data centers play into China's hands, Trump says President Trump has sharply rejected the growing backlash against AI data centers across the US. On Truth Social, he wrote that communities turning down data centers would become "backwards and poor." China "could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement", he added, because any slowdown in US buildout would give Beijing an advantage in the AI race. A Gallup poll https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx from March showed that 71 percent of Americans oppose having these facilities built near their homes. Residents worry about rising electricity costs, noise, and heavy water usage. According to the research group Data Center Watch, grassroots campaigns blocked or delayed at least 75 projects worth roughly $130 billion https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/31/trump-datacenter-comments in the first quarter of 2026 alone. Companies like OpenAI https://the-decoder.com/openai-promises-ai-data-centers-wont-raise-local-electricity-prices/ , Anthropic https://the-decoder.com/anthropic-promises-to-cover-consumer-electricity-costs-from-new-data-center-construction/ , and Microsoft https://the-decoder.com/microsoft-pledges-to-cover-data-center-power-costs-as-community-pushback-grows/ have responded to the pushback. China plans to nearly double its data center capacity over the next five years. US media have also reported that China may be actively trying to fuel the domestic opposition. A congressional committee has called for an investigation into those claims. The White House itself isn't fully aligned on the issue. Vice President Vance said data centers are a key part of the AI economy but that operators should build their own power plants instead of straining local grids. AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans Subscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive "AI Radar" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section. Subscribe now