Trump warns communities rejecting data centers will end up "backwards and poor"

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President Donald Trump on Monday again championed the spread of data centers despite growing bipartisan backlash ahead of the midterms in November.

In a post to Truth Social , the president insisted data centers will lead to richer, more successful Americans and criticized those who object to them.

“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,” Trump said. “If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.”

Data center expansion has become a critical component in the leadup to November’s midterms, with polls showing a majority of Americans oppose them being built in their communities. Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed concerns over data centers, with lawmakers and state leaders warning about overloaded power grids, strained water systems and the level of noise the projects create.

Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott this month instituted new regulations on data centers despite expressing broad support for them over the last year on the campaign trail . Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers and Pennsylvania GOP nominee for governor Stacy Garrity have both urged for a temporary halt to some projects.

But Trump, who has met with some of the world’s leading tech giants on numerous occasions, is adamant that data centers are critical to staying ahead of China in the artificial intelligence race — a point he made in a recent interview with his former fixer Michael Cohen and which he reiterated on Monday.

“China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement. Actually, they can’t believe it is happening!”

It’s not the first time Trump has touted data center expansion. Last year, he signed an executive order to accelerate the permitting and building of centers. In a separate Truth Social post from July, he called data centers “one of the biggest Driving Forces in the Future for Jobs.”

In July, New York became the first state to issue a pause on building new infrastructure — a move Trump criticized shortly after Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the executive order.