A MAGA congressman has blasted Donald Trump for suggesting that people who oppose the construction of data centers want to “end up being backwards and poor.”
The 80-year-old president dismissed concerns from voters across the country who do not want the energy-intensive behemoths built in their communities, saying they should want them so they can be “successful and rich.”
“The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them. If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday. “China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement. Actually, they can’t believe it is happening.”
When asked for his response to Trump’s remarks by MeidasTouch’s Pablo Manríquez, Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett replied: “I guess I’m backwards and poor.”
“I think what we need to do is start putting those in military installations and places like that, and they’ve done a poor job of educating the public on those things,” Burchett, 62, said on Monday.
“They’re just ‘oh, we’re for them, and then you should be for them’ kind of thing,” he added. “We should have brought everybody to the table. We used to stay in the legislature, go a little slower, get there a little faster.”
Opposition to data centers is one of the few things that appears to unite the country. In June, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 77 percent of U.S. adults worry AI-driven data centers will raise electricity costs. More than half (57 percent) also said they would oppose building a data center in their community.
A May Gallup survey also found that seven in 10 Americans said they would oppose constructing artificial intelligence data centers in their local area, including nearly half (48 percent) who were strongly opposed.
Several MAGA and Republican federal and gubernatorial candidates have realized voters largely oppose data centers, running ads that break with Trump and voicing their opposition to boost their midterm chances.
Trump’s own supporters made sure to tell the president they opposed him while replying to his Truth Social post.
“Mr. President: Think about farm land and about water resources, and a man as intelligent as you will see that the absolute position you are taking is flawed,” one Truth Social user wrote. “What use is being rich if you cannot get access to water and food?”
Another added: “Thank you, but no thanks. We wish to remain a farming community, not IT. America cannot eat a data center, or survive without our farms.”
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most vocal opponents of data centers in Congress, had her own take on Trump’s assessment that only “backwards and poor” people do not want them built.
“How about we put one in Mar-a-Lago?” she told MeidasTouch. “We’ll see how backwards and poor he is in response to that.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
