Trump says data centers are the future — deal with it

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.

President Donald Trump tried to sell Ohioans on data centers during a recent rally in the Buckeye state, asking his supporters to consider the cost of China gaining an advantage over the U.S.

During a visit to Vandalia, Ohio — just north of Dayton — Trump asked the Ohioan workers to consider the U.S.'s supposed AI race with China when they form their opinions on data centers, The Hill reports.

“There’s so much money to be made for Ohio. You can’t just turn them off. They’ll go to China,” he said.

Trump recently made the curious decision to rename AI to "super intelligence" and has opposed moratoriums on data center construction as well as calls from AI developers like OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei to slow down AI research due to safety concerns.

The president insisted that data centers would provide Ohio with economic benefits for local communities.

Critics have argued that data centers do not typically create many local jobs, drive up energy prices, and produce noise, light and traditional pollution.

Sen. John Husted, who is currently facing a re-election challenge by Democratic former Senator Sherrod Brown, has faced criticism from Ohioans over his role in bringing data centers to the state while he was serving as its lieutenant governor.

Husted introduced a bill that aimed to address the concerns over data centers by forcing large power users to bear more of the costs of their energy use, but that bill was blocked by Senate Democrats.

Brown has used Husted's ties to data centers as a point of attack in his campaign.

“Sen. Jon Husted gave billions in tax breaks to Big Tech to make sure they would build their data centers in Ohio,” Brown said in a social media post. “Now, he’s making Ohioans foot the bill.”