President Trump publicly defended the expansion of AI data center construction despite regulatory and community pushback.
U.S. President Donald Trump voiced support for data center projects during a radio interview that aired on Sunday. The segment was hosted by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who previously testified against him in a high-profile 2024 trial. Taped on Wednesday, the discussion extended beyond data centers to cover additional topics.
Artificial intelligence infrastructure projects face mounting scrutiny over their environmental impact, electricity costs, and grid stability, prompting several local and state governments to pause construction. During his conversation with Cohen, Trump criticized those halts, calling them a mistake. “Frankly, communities that don’t take a data center, they’re making a mistake because there’s plenty of communities that want them,” Trump said. “Because it means jobs, and it means tremendous tax revenue coming into the towns and cities that take them.”
Data center development typically generates substantially more temporary construction roles than permanent positions. OpenAI Group PBC’s upcoming Ohio campus, for example, is projected to create 35,000 construction jobs over six years. Once operational, the facility cluster will employ approximately 2,500 long-term staff members.
Trump also addressed how AI companies are securing energy for their facilities. “They’re making their own power plants. They’re building the most beautiful, you’ve never seen power plants like this,” he said. This follows a July decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to exempt data center power plants from certain air quality regulations under the Acid Rain Program. Officials stated the exemption aims to provide companies “greater flexibility in where and how quickly” they can develop AI infrastructure.
OpenAI’s Ohio campus will draw electricity from a dedicated power plant estimated to cost $33 billion, with the ChatGPT developer planning an additional $4 billion investment in power transmission lines and related infrastructure. Meanwhile, Meta Platforms Inc. recently increased its planned power plants for the Hyperion data center cluster from three to ten. The company’s Louisiana campus is expected to house 10 gigawatts of computing equipment.
The interview aired hours after Texas Governor Greg Abbott remarked that AI data center operators “basically dug their own grave for the problem that’s been caused for them, and that’s why they got the backlash they deserve.” Weeks earlier, Abbott ordered a statewide pause on new data center projects, citing concerns over potential strain on Texas’ electrical grid reliability. Other states have similarly moved to restrict AI infrastructure in recent months. New York became the first state to enact a data center construction moratorium in July, while Pennsylvania recently imposed a series of new environmental requirements on AI projects.