Trump’s Call to ‘Let Data Reign’ Clashes with Republicans’ Caution

First it was beef. Then it was new tariffs. Now it’s data centers.

President Donald Trump’s recent policy moves are making life difficult for Republicans, many of whom fear the series of economic positions could cost them control of Congress in November’s midterms.

Trump’s love letter to data centers this week undercut efforts by Republican candidates in battleground states to align themselves with a growing bipartisan backlash against new construction of the resource-intensive projects. His remark that communities that oppose data centers are destined to become “backwards and poor” landed like a thud on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail.

“I guess I’m backwards and poor,” Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett told a reporter for the outlet MeidasTouch on Monday, suggesting that new data centers ought to be built on military installations. “We need more local control. Go a little slower to get there a little faster.”

Freshman Rep. Rob Bresnahan, who represents a high-profile swing seat in Pennsylvania, told NOTUS he disagrees with the president on the matter.

“It’s something we have a different perspective on,” Bresnahan said, adding that he wants to ensure approved developments provide a benefit to the community.

“I have a piece of legislation called ‘Local Control Protections Act,’ which does exactly what the name insinuates. It empowers local communities and allows those decisions to be made at the local level. … We’re about local control,” he said.

Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who represents a deeply conservative district, appeared to criticize Trump’s position: “New directive from the leader: MAGA is required to support all Data Centers, no questions asked,” he wrote on X.

Data centers have become a major political issue as voters grow increasingly weary of their impact on the energy grid, utility bills and water resources. While most elected Republicans continue to cheerlead construction of new facilities, touting that they create jobs, GOP candidates in tough races have embraced restrictions on the industry, including moratoriums on new facilities and requirements that data centers cover the cost of electricity bills.

Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, for example, has called for a one-year pause on new data centers. In Texas, where state Attorney General Ken Paxton is running for Senate and Gov. Greg Abbott is seeking reelection, both Republicans are also pushing to pause new data center projects, even though Abbott initially promoted Texas as a hub for the industry and offered tax incentives. In Pennsylvania, state treasurer and Republican gubernatorial candidate Stacy Garrity has called for an indefinite pause on new data center development. In Wisconsin, Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, has called for ending state subsidies for data centers.

“Tom Tiffany’s position has always been clear: Local communities must have the final say, and no new data centers should be built in Wisconsin without strong standards to protect our farmland, water, environment and ratepayers,” a Tiffany campaign spokesperson told NOTUS.

Nevertheless, Trump’s strong endorsement of data centers is handing their Democratic opponents a fresh line of attack.

“Make no mistake — this is Mike Rogers’ position on data centers,” Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed wrote online. “He’s got up to $2.6 million invested in companies cashing in on the data center boom, all while Michiganders watch their utility bills soar.”

The campaigns of Rogers, Paxton, Abbott and Garrity did not respond to a request for comment.

One Republican gubernatorial candidate did push back on Trump’s call to “let Data reign.”

“President Trump and I don’t see eye to eye on this issue,” wrote Darren Bailey, the nominee in Illinois. “As I travel across Illinois, I hear the same concerns: massive data centers are threatening farmland, straining our power grid and driving up costs. My position is clear: Illinois families and communities come first.”

Other Republicans suggested Trump’s historically poor approval ratings pose a bigger challenge for the party in this year’s midterm elections, rather than the issue of data center construction.

“I think Trump is right on the issue, despite the clumsiness with which he said it. The next 50 years could rest on the next five regarding AI,” Republican strategist Doug Heye told NOTUS. “But, I don’t think it has much of an impact, where Trump’s approval rating definitely does.”

Conservative radio host Erick Erickson, meanwhile, said on his show Monday that Trump stood up for data centers “probably in the least helpful way possible.” Erickson, who’s based in Georgia, praised Vice President JD Vance for taking a “far more nuanced approach.”

Vance expressed some sympathy for skeptics of the facilities while traveling Monday to Michigan, a state where communities have also pushed back against data centers.

“I think probably 99% of the backlash to data centers has come in areas where building a data center means higher utilities and higher electricity for the people on the ground,” Vance said.

He added that data centers “should be putting power back into the grid, not taking it out. And if that is happening, I don’t think the data centers are that controversial. It’s when the utility bills get so much higher; that’s when it’s a real problem.”

Polls show deep distrust in data centers. In a Fox News survey conducted in July, 70% of respondents expressed opposition to the construction of a data center in their area, including 60% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats.

Former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was dismissive of the president’s position in a post on X: “Good luck winning the midterms now that MAGA means mass data centers, flock cameras and the surveillance state, protecting the Epstein class, and the never ending Iran War!!”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), a prominent AI critic who led calls for a federal moratorium on data center construction last year, said Americans have “every right to be concerned” about them.

“They understand that data centers are destroying local environments and that these out-of-control technologies will likely eliminate tens of millions of jobs, eviscerate our privacy, negatively impact the mental health of our children, radically alter how we as human beings relate to each other, undermine our democracy and threaten the very future of humanity,” Sanders wrote in a post responding to Trump on Monday.