ROOKE: Ocasio-Cortez Gleefully Seizes On White House Messaging Mishap

The White House is making a catastrophic mistake on one of the hottest debates in the country, and the left is cheering them on.

Data centers are experiencing an unprecedented boom in the U.S., turning them into a kitchen-table topic. Both parties will have to figure out how to craft the right message to win over voters. The problem for President Donald Trump is that despite his push for more, public opinion on local projects is often negative.

Polls frequently show majority opposition to a facility near one’s home, citing electricity costs, water use, noise, land use, and grid strain. Some surveys put nearby support at the teens or under 30 percent. With Americans showing this level of negativity, the smart play would be to begin highlighting the benefits of allowing a data center to establish operations in these communities. But Trump took the opposite approach.

“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign,” Trump posted Monday on his Truth Social account. “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. China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement. Actually, they can’t believe it is happening!”

Moments after Trump sent the post, the takeaway streaming across social media wasn’t that Trump talked about how data centers lower taxes and provide jobs. It was that he talked down to Americans over their distrust of the tech industry and fearmongered about China winning the AI race. The words “backward and poor” became the message.

The problem with fearmongering the nation about China is that the administration has been wishy-washy on holding China accountable. In one breath, they say that China is our greatest adversary in the AI race and that it’s imperative for national security and the future of our economic success that the U.S. continue to lead. But in the next, Trump is preaching to Americans about the desperate need for us to continue allowing 600,000 Chinese students access to our higher education system despite the high-profile cases of IP theft and sabotage at the hands of Chinese nationals. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

The tech industry has been a constant source of frustration and lies that have driven the American people into high levels of distrust. These data centers are buying up family farms, changing the landscapes around local communities, using finite resources, and driving up utility costs for regular Americans. And, right now, public perception is that no one in power (meaning Republicans who hold majorities in both chambers and the White House) truly cares about the little man anymore. Instead, they get a lecture.

Democrats are already capitalizing on Trump’s Truth Social post. Pablo Manríquez, a reporter for MeidasTouch, asked New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez what she makes of Trump’s post.

“I mean, how about we put one in Mar-a-Lago? I love that. Let’s put a data center up in Mar-a-Lago, and we’ll see how backwards and poor he is in response to that,” she said.

The right won’t want to admit it, but it was a great response. She validated Americans’ fears about data centers and highlighted the growing class divide. If Republicans want to win on this issue, there has to be more for voters than yelling down from the White House stoop, “trust us, we are the experts and know more than you.”

Americans are still angry about what happened during the Covid years when the supposed experts closed millions of small businesses for good. Citizens were locked up for going to the beach or park with their kids. Families weren’t allowed to say final goodbyes to their dying loved ones, and funerals were severely restricted. Children missed crucial educational milestones and cultural traditions, such as graduations and sports activities. Lives were ruined by listening to the experts. There isn’t much appetite for this behavior from the federal government, especially not for something as important as data centers.

The better move would be to talk about Loudoun County, Virginia, home to the largest concentration of data centers in the U.S. Loudoun County collected roughly $895 million in data center real and personal property tax revenue in 2025. This was enough to cover about 95 percent of the county’s operating budget, projected at $940 million. It has also supported repeated cuts to the residential property-tax rate.

A data center project in Independence, Missouri, is expected to provide about $651.5 million in PILOT payments over 20 years, with roughly half a billion earmarked for the Independence School District. The vacant land being used to build the project previously generated under $3,000 a year.

Officials in Effingham County, Georgia, claim the recent OpenAI-related deal will become the county’s largest taxpayer, bringing in about $870 million in tax payments over 15 years.

West Virginia treasurer analysis of projects in Berkeley and Putnam counties found a combined expected tax income exceeding $100 million a year, including tens of millions for local school districts and money into a personal income tax reduction fund for residents. (ROOKE: Big Tech Broke Their Promise, Americans Haven’t Forgotten)

Highlighting these stories makes the fear and burdens surrounding at least the cost of data centers much more marketable and palatable than telling Americans to shut up and take the expansion. For Republicans to ignore voter concerns just a few months before the November election sure makes it easier for Democrats. All they have to do is put up a mild fight against data centers, and the masses, exhausted by the condescension, will provide the blue wave they want.

If the White House wants to change the direction of the data center battle, it will have to address its messaging problem immediately. Or Republicans can kiss the midterms and the AI race goodbye.

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