Aug 8, 2026
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Add us on GoogleMark President Donald Trump down as an unabashed booster of the data center buildout.
“They are tremendously important for the economics. For Texas to say no to data centers is a mistake in the sense that it could be bigger than oil,” Trump said in a Punchbowl News interview published Friday. “Data centers could be bigger than oil.”
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Trump was referring to a Monday announcement from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to impose a moratorium on the construction of data centers until state regulators are able to audit the proposed ones now seeking to be connected to the Texas power grid.
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The president continued: “There are a lot of communities that want them, but more importantly, and bad for us, there are a lot of countries that want them. And if we turn off on data centers, we turn off on AI.”
The split on data centers
Trump’s robust defense of data centers will put him out of step with public opinion. About 70% of Americans oppose a data center being constructed in their neighborhood, according to Heatmap News polling in June.
About seven in 10 (71%) of Americans responded similarly in a Gallup poll published in May. Data centers represent a source of friction in the upcoming November midterms, given their role in driving up electricity demand and yielding sharp monthly power bill increases for many Americans.
The president also said data center developers are “becoming like a utility, a public utility” and touted the administration’s efforts to fast-track the permitting process that connects the facilities onto the electric grid.
Early in his second term, Trump prioritized the AI race and scaling back regulation to allow development of the nascent technology. However, the Trump administration started taking steps towards greater oversight over frontier AI models in recent months.
The Trump administration has also sought to limit utility bill increases. The White House recently pushed for more governors, electricity companies, and data center developers to sign onto a voluntary ratepayer protection pledge meant to shield families from utility bill increases. However, experts are skeptical about the nonbinding pledge materializing into major savings for Americans, since hyperscalers continue an virtually unchecked data center buildout that will heighten electricity demand.
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Where Democrats stand on data centers
Democrats are split on how to deal with data centers. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the chief tax writer for Senate Democrats, released a proposal on Wednesday for a single-digit excise tax on data centers that could be used to soften the blow for unemployed workers.
“These proposals are a first step towards safeguarding taxpayer dollars and ensuring there are resources to support American workers displaced by the coming disruptions to the economy,” Wyden said in a statement.
Other policy proposals include an excise tax applied specifically to the energy usage of data centers from Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a prominent progressive.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has advocated for a data center moratorium, in addition to the federal government taking a 50% equity stake in the largest AI companies. The latter, he says, would ensure that CEOs can’t displace workers on a whim.
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Joseph Zeballos-Roig is a policy and politics journalist based in Washington D.C with a focus on economics. He is experienced in connecting the significance of events in the capital to the lives of everyday Americans whether its taxes, tariffs, interest rates or federal programs.
