A hot potato: President Trump has said that data center companies should "make deals" with local communities to ensure the facilities aren't loathed by the people who live near them. He added that paying a "dividend" would help make the sites popular, though similar incentives haven't always worked in the past.
"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 Truth Social post.
The president added that these dividends should be paid to the community and/or individuals within the community.
While everyone likes free money, not everyone believes a cash incentive is worth having a data center at their front door. It was reported in September that every household in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, was promised a $10,000 "grant" from a data center developer. The money is contingent on approval of the first of up to 15 data center buildings on a 1,300-acre site at the foot of the Pocono Mountains near the town.
However, while some residents have shown interest, many say $10,000 is nowhere near enough to offset the potential drop in property values caused by the data center development. It doesn't address concerns about noise, water usage, and pollution, either.
Other companies have been spending money to try to convince local communities that their data centers aren't that bad. Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said this month that the company will invest more than $1 billion over the next five years in data center towns across the US. He also blamed "misinformation" for fueling opposition, which is a common excuse.
SpaceX took a different approach. It offered its Starlink satellite internet service at half the usual price to residents near its Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee, but only around 2,000 people from more than 250,000 households signed up.
Trump has previously been outspoken in his criticism of those who oppose data centers. He said protesters were "making a mistake," and warned that communities rejecting them risk becoming "backwards and poor."
Trump also mentioned the impact these data centers have on electricity supplies in the areas where they're constructed. "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 said in his post.
Trump previously called on technology companies to provide for their own electricity needs, including by building their own power plants. On 4 March 2026, seven major technology companies signed a voluntary "Ratepayer Protection Pledge" at the White House, committing to fund additional power generation and the grid upgrades needed to serve their data centers, with the aim of preventing those costs from being passed on to other electricity customers.
Trump tells data center companies to make financial deals with local communities
