As many have noted, opposition to AI data centers is one of the very few issues that cuts across political and ideological lines in the U.S. Everyone hates them. Many hate them on first principles — opposition to AI “hyperscaler” centers, environmentalists, electrical grid lovers. Others hate them because they don’t want them in their neighborhoods or rural counties. But the scope of the opposition is notable because so few things these days generate grassroots opposition on both sides of the political aisle.
Earlier this afternoon, President Trump posted a long screed attacking New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) who just announced a statewide moratorium on the construction of new data centers in New York state. But the post is really a broad and totalizing endorsement of data centers everywhere, with the claim that they generate tons of tax revenue and jobs. The former is highly debatable; the latter is clearly false. “They are big, strong, bold and Money Machines for the state in which they are built … Both the Taxes and the Jobs amount to LIQUID GOLD!,” wrote the president and creative capitalizer/punctuator in a Truth Social post today.
Remember that Trump and his coterie are not only surrounded by leading lights of the AI hyperscaler world but heavily personally invested in AI and the coming AI rollout. They are heavily invested, both literally and figuratively.
It’s another example of how we are in this weird and uncanny political moment in which Trump’s politics have broken free of the constraints of public opinion. (It’s reminiscent of a mob bust-out where you rapidly strip a business of its value with no concern for the future because you’re just going to burn it down and collect the insurance pay out.) Presidents often pursue some policies in which they are on the wrong side of public opinion. That’s in the nature of politics. What we’re seeing today is in a different category, a president acting as though there are no limits on his power even as those limits gather round him. While people really do use AI, AI data centers rate in popularity terms down with child molesters. And yes, perhaps that’s an indicator when it comes to Trump. What we’re seeing here and elsewhere is a presidency in YOLO mode, freed even from medium-term strategies and warnings and focused on cashing in, both politically and financially, in the short term.