Trump Tells Data Center Builders to Pay Communities a “Dividend” to Win Support

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that companies building data centers should pay a “dividend” to the communities where they build if they want their projects to win public support.

“I have watched the process closely, and data centers that were highly unpopular in a certain area, have become extremely popular when a financial deal is struck,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump also said he wants new, large data centers to generate their own electricity and give or sell any excess power back to the local community or the grid. He argued the move would keep electricity prices from rising and could bring them down.

“New and large, in some cases gigantic, Data (centers) are mandated by me to make their own electricity, and give or sell any excess back to the local community, or grid,” Trump wrote.

Why data centers have become a flashpoint

Data centers that power cloud computing and artificial intelligence have drawn protests in communities across the country because of the large amounts of water and electricity they use. According to Reuters, opposition has united voters across ideological lines.

Trump has spoken on the power question before. In February, he said major technology companies must build their own power plants for their data centers to protect consumers from rising bills.

His latest remarks arrive as AI companies move to share some of the wealth from the AI boom. Anthropic, the company behind the Claude models, said over the weekend it will commit 5% of its shares to a new fund for the “public good.” Elon Musk said Monday he would give one SpaceX share to every child in America, according to Reuters.

Trump closed his post with a call for companies to make deals with host communities: “MAKE DEALS, and get them built!!!” He wrote that such projects are “great for the U.S.A.”

Reporting based on coverage by Reuters, syndicated on SRN News.