Trump, AI industry go on offensive to counter data center backlash

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The Hill's Headlines (PM) - September 2, 2026

The Hill's Headlines (PM) - September 2, 2026

President Trump and the AI industry are going on the offensive, attempting to bolster support for data centers as they contend with a groundswell of public opposition that has swept across party lines. 

Trump has not shied away from embracing the controversial server warehouses behind the AI boom, but he appeared to take a no-holds-barred approach Monday as he called for the U.S. to “let Data Reign” and accused the opposition of wanting to be “backwards and poor.” 

The AI advocacy group Build American AI also launched a multimillion-dollar campaign Monday aimed at building support for “commonsense” data center policies, while a group of data center developers unveiled their own nonprofit Wednesday seeking to highlight benefits from the AI infrastructure. 

The latest push comes as the data center buildout has increasingly become politically “toxic,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a GOP strategist and head of the advocacy group Alliance for Secure AI. 

“The AI industry is losing and has been [losing] on this issue pretty much all year,” he told The Hill, adding, “The American people are skeptical of AI, skeptical of Big Tech, and the companies are trying to reverse that trend and it’s going to be very difficult.” 

Nearly two-thirds of Americans — 63 percent — say they would oppose a new data center being built in their community, according to an Economist/YouGov poll released Tuesday. Another 51 percent say data centers are bad for the country. 

This includes a sizeable share of Republicans, with 52 percent in the poll opposing nearby data center construction and 39 percent deeming the infrastructure bad for the U.S. 

Trump finds himself “caught between this massive movement by his base that is skeptical of data centers and AI and the moneyed interests in Big Tech that are funding a lot of candidates and funding the........

© The Hill