President Trump defended the rapid buildout of massive data centers Saturday as he rallied supporters in Ohio to turn out for Republican candidates in next month’s midterm elections — warning that blocking the tech projects would hand an advantage to China.
“There’s so much money to be made for Ohio. You can’t just turn them off. They’ll go to China,” Trump told supporters at the campaign rally outside Dayton — where he urged voters to back Republican Sen. Jon Husted and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump repeatedly told the crowd in the battleground state to act as though he himself were on the ballot in the November 3 midterms.
“Please pretend that I’m on the ballot, and you need to turn out for a midterm victory,” he said.
Trump said his administration was taking “historic action” to make sure large technology companies behind data centers benefit surrounding communities.
The president tied the data center boom to the global race over artificial intelligence, saying the US was ahead of China in what he repeatedly called “superintelligence.”
Trump said China “doesn’t want to see us,” adding, “We’re beating China” in the technology race as he argued against turning data centers away from the US.
At the same time, Trump backed legislation pushed by Husted that he said would “stop data centers from raising electricity costs and require them to pay their own way.”
Trump said nearly every Senate Democrat had voted days earlier to block the measure.
He vowed to sign the Ratepayer Protection Act “into law immediately within 24 hours” if Republicans prevailed.
The surge in data center development has triggered a bipartisan backlash across the country as communities grapple with the enormous amounts of electricity, water and land required to power the facilities.
The biggest fight has centered on who should pay for the infrastructure needed to serve the projects.
Utilities may need to build new power plants, substations and transmission lines for massive data center loads, raising concerns that households and other businesses could be stuck with higher bills if those costs are spread across the broader rate base.
Water use, noise and sprawling footprints have also fueled resistance, particularly in areas where projects sit near homes or rely on strained water supplies.
Critics have also questioned generous state and local tax breaks for facilities that can cost billions of dollars to build but employ relatively few workers once construction is finished.
The political pressure has prompted officials in several states to rethink the incentives and fast-track approvals once used to lure the industry.
Some states have paused tax breaks or permitting, while others have pushed special utility rates and requirements aimed at making developers shoulder more of the cost of serving their facilities.
Trump was in Ohio after stops in Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama this week as part of what he says will be a 32-day jaunt ahead of the midterms.
— With Post wires
