Trump is right to put his neck on the line for data centers

On Wednesday, speaking at the White House alongside crypto executives, President Trump noted that he would “absolutely” want a data center in his community.“If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a data center, I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous,” he said.It was a rare and refreshing defense of infrastructure that has become a bête noire for Republicans and Democrats alike, despite the fact that data centers have dramatically improved life in communities where they’re built — think $50K teacher bonuses, reduced tax burdens for residents and the creation of high-paying jobs.These facilities are powering a revolution, providing the necessary energy for the huge amounts of compute needed for LLMs to work — and for America to beat China in the AI race.In a midterm environment where politicians across the board are running from data centers, Trump is right to push back against the anti-data center hysteria and give them some “public relations help” as he put it.To be fair, I completely understand the NIMBY argument — no one wants an objectively ugly building in their backyard.And while there have been valid concerns about electricity and water consumption, data centers are responsible for less than 1% of water consumption, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and use less electricity than commercial and residential lighting according to Grid Lab.Modern life is full of unattractive infrastructure — cell towers, strip malls, cable lines, warehouses — but data centers have received an inordinate amount of bad PR.

The combination of anger about the new technology and a lack of information has made for a full blown data-center derangement syndrome.A recent Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans oppose building a data center in their area compared with only 53% who oppose a new nuclear power...