This is republished with permission by the author. The original, “Did Trump Kill Data Centers?” can be found here. Subscribe to the National Populist Newsletter here.
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Data centers are one of the central issues around the 2026 midterm elections; fears about AI, effects on the environment, and rising energy prices have galvanized voters in their opposition. It’s hard to imagine standing in September 2026, but a year ago the country wasn’t nearly as angry over the issue.
A poll by Navigator in December 2025 found that a large share of voters were ambivalent about building data centers, with a third of Democrats and 40% of Independents unsure how they felt. Republicans, while being more supportive, also had large populations with no strong feelings either way.
A Politico poll from January found similar numbers, with a third of Harris voters and nearly as many Trump voters unsure how they felt.
Seeing traction against data centers starting to grow, President Trump both demanded data centers start paying for their own electricity and making agreement with major tech companies to a broad set of energy, water, and community principles. It was more PR of Trump and the tech community walking hand-in-hand together.
As the months continued, Trump became more vocal in his support, with his government giving its full backing.
When Politico polled the subject again in July, opposition became increasingly hardened against data centers, but there were still large segments of the population that had no opinion on the subject.
Understandably, Trump wasn’t the only thing moving the needle on data centers, but his support could have taken people who were ambivalent to the topic but disliked him and moved them against data centers. In much the same way, they opposed his statements on COVID-19 but supported what Fauci said, even when they fully agreed. Orange man bad, Orange man like data center, therefore data center bad.
Data centers became politicized, as nearly every issue Trump has ever weighed in on, and Democrats had their instinct to oppose a position. Democrats have done this for a decade; in 2013, just a few years before Trump’s trip down the escalator, 46% of Democrats supported a $46 billion border fence proposed during the Obama administration. When Trump supported basically the same thing but called it a wall, support fell to 11%.
Trump’s vitriol against people who opposed data centers became more vocal as time went on, and most of the surrogates supporting them came from the Right and often from his government.
By the time September 2026 rolled around, opposition to data centers was overwhelming, with the exception of Republican support, which is nearly evenly divided despite Trump’s heavy lobbying and mirrored overall approval of the president. Some pro-tech Democrats and Independents continued their support for data centers, while Republicans, for the most part, weren’t convinced by anything Trump said on the issue.
The numbers seem stark, but if you compare them to polling in July from Politico, Democrat opposition hasn’t moved much, down just four points. Republican support is not much different from January.
The real difference is that almost everyone has an opinion about data centers, with the public being largely against them.
Trump’s support for them could have had the opposite effect; it may have reversed some soft opposition among Republicans but pushed Democrats and Independents who don’t like him off the sidelines and firmly in the camp against them.
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Ryan James Girdusky is an author, podcaster, political consultant, and writer whose work has been featured in multiple publications including the Washington Examiner, The American Conservative Magazine, The Week, Human Events, and The Daily Caller. He is the host of “It’s A Numbers Game with Ryan Girdusky” podcast and creator of the National Populist Newsletter. Follow him on X: @RyanGirdusky
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