President Trump has spent months selling AI data centers as the backbone of American technological dominance. Voters, it turns out, are not buying what he’s selling.
A Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans oppose having a data center built in their community. That level of opposition cuts across party lines, with surveys showing 57-75% of both Republicans and Democrats rejecting these facilities near their homes. For a president who has staked significant political capital on being the AI president, the numbers represent an unusually bipartisan rebuke.
The $700 billion problem
Tech companies have planned or committed over $700 billion in US data center investments for 2026. Trump has framed these investments as essential for keeping pace with China in the AI race. He has publicly argued that communities rejecting data center projects risk becoming “backwards and poor.”
The concerns driving opposition are practical, not ideological. Residents near proposed data center sites worry about rising electricity rates, massive water consumption, environmental pollution, and what they see as government subsidies flowing to some of the richest companies on Earth.
