Trump sends message to governors, mayors on AI data centers: ‘I would want that plant’
President Donald Trump urged governors and mayors to welcome AI plants and data centers into their communities, saying he would “absolutely want” such projects because of the jobs and tax revenue they bring.
President Donald Trump said earlier this week that any governor or local government official should want to welcome the construction of AI data centers.
“The construction jobs are enormous. We’re building the biggest plants anywhere in the world. And I can say, if I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in an AI plant or a data center, I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous, and the money paid, the taxes paid are just enormous,” Trump said at the White House on Wednesday.
“And if you don’t take it, you’re going to be left behind because there are plenty of places that want it,” he added during a meeting with technology and cryptocurrency industry leaders in the Roosevelt Room. “But if I were a governor or mayor, I would want that plant in my community. And many of them are designed in a very beautiful way. It’s really very positive.”
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with crypto and prediction market executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 19, 2026.(Al Drago/The Washington Post/Bloomberg
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Trump also suggested that the AI industry needs “a little public relations help,” given that the majority of Americans are opposed to data centers being built in their communities, according to a Gallup poll from May.
Americans surveyed in that poll were largely concerned with the potential environmental impact of data centers, as well as their need for large amounts of electricity and water to run.
In response to a reporter who asked what Trump would say to those who are still reticent about AI, the president again pointed to job creation, but also medical innovation.
“I think it’s going to create a lot of jobs. It’s going to create success. It’s going to create tremendous innovation medically,” Trump said. “They came out with something today that I looked at it having to do— I won’t go into the details, but having to do with a pretty unstoppable disease, and all of a sudden they’re coming up with answers that they never thought were possible.”
Trump stands at the lectern alongside a group of tech and crypto executives on Aug. 19, 2026.(Al Drago/The Washington Post/Bloomberg
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Trump also gave some limited insight into how he’d approach regulating AI, an industry he said “may be bigger than the internet.”
“We’re leading by a lot with AI. We want to keep it that way. We want to regulate, but we want to have regulation where they can continue to lead, not regulation that’s going to stifle a very important industry,” he said.
Trump referenced his administration’s recent bid to encourage data center developers and tech companies to secure new sources of electricity, easing pressure on power grids while preventing the costs from being passed on to American households.
The president also touted a July executive order that calls for the permitting process for data centers to be expedited.
The Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, on Sept. 24, 2025.(Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg
Trump has long been bullish on AI. On Jan. 21, 2025, his second day back in office, he announced “Stargate,” a private-sector joint venture that planned to invest up to $500 billion in U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The effort has since expanded to multiple data-center projects across the country, with its flagship facility in Abilene, Texas, partially operational.
