Trump defends AI data center buildout amid pushback
U.S. President Donald Trump expressed support for data center projects in a radio interview that aired on Sunday.
The segment was hosted by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who had testified against him in a high-profile 2024 trial. The discussion, which was taped on Wednesday, also covered other topics besides data centers.
Artificial intelligence infrastructure projects are coming under increasing scrutiny over their impact on the environment, electricity prices and grid stability. In response, several local and state governments have d data center construction. During the radio interview with Cohen, Trump called those decisions a mistake.
“Frankly, communities that don’t take a data center, they’re making a mistake because there’s plenty of communities that want them,” Trump said. “Because it means jobs, and it means tremendous tax revenue coming into the towns and cities that take them.”
Data center projects usually create significantly more temporary construction jobs than long-term positions. OpenAI Group PBC’s upcoming Ohio campus, for example, is expected to create 35,000 construction jobs over six years. Once the data center cluster is up and running, it will employ about 2,500 long-term staffers.
Trump also addressed AI companies’ power sourcing efforts during the interview. “They’re making their own power plants. They’re building the most beautiful, you’ve never seen power plants like this,” he said.
In July, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exempted data center power plants from a set of air quality requirements called the Acid Rain Program. Officials stated that the move is designed to give companies “greater flexibility in where and how quickly” they build their AI facilities.
OpenAI’s Ohio campus will draw power from a dedicated power plant set to cost $33 billion. The ChatGPT developer intends to spend another $4 billion on power transmission lines and related infrastructure. Meta Platforms Inc., in turn, recently upped the number of power plants it plans to build for its Hyperion data center cluster from three to 10. The Louisiana campus is expected to host 10 gigawatts of computing equipment.
Trump’s interview with Cohen aired a few hours after Texas governor Greg Abbott stated that AI data center operators “basically dug their own grave for the problem that’s been caused for them, and that’s why they got the backlash they deserve.” A few weeks earlier, Abbot ordered a on new data center projects in the state. He cited concerns that the facilities could reduce the reliability of Texas’s electrical grid.
Other states have also moved to restrict AI infrastructure projects in recent months. In July, New York became the first state to implement a data center construction moratorium. More recently, Pennsylvania imposed a raft of new environmental requirements on AI projects.
Photo: White House
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