President Donald Trump has said everyAmerican should want a data center in their town. But his home county in Florida just voted to block them.
In a 6-0 vote, commissioners in Palm Beach County—home to the president’s luxurious private club and second residence, Mar-a-Lago—voted to enact a one-year moratorium on the construction of new “large-scale” data centers that use at least 50 megawatts of power.
The moratorium, approved on Thursday, came after Palm Beach residents expressed concerns shared by Americans around the country who’ve seen data centers move into their communities. Palm Beach already has some smaller data centers. But in July, it rejected a proposal for the 600MW Project Tango, following warnings about its potential effects on local wetlands and on families’ pocketbooks.
“Many communities want the economic benefits that data centers bring, but we all fear the higher power bills, the negative environmental impact, disruptive noise, and the depletion of water resources,” explained one supporter of the moratorium at a county commission meeting on Thursday, according to the local ABC affiliate.
A poll conducted last month by Embold Research and published by Heatmap Pro found that 75% of Americans now oppose the building of AI data centers in their area, including 61% who registered strong opposition. Aversion to data centers crosses party lines, with majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents viewing them negatively.
As AI companies spend tens of millions bankrolling Trump and Republican candidates, members of the president’s Cabinet, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, havescoffed at Americans’ concerns about the tremendous water and energy use of data centers, which have been well documented as jacking up utility prices.
In a social media post last month, Trump himself said the only reason communities would not want a data center nearby is if they “want to end up being backwards and poor.” Before that, he said that “smart communities” were “begging for them.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has become one of Capitol Hill’s leading critics of data centers and the artificial intelligence models they power, has said that if Trump truly finds data centers so desirable, he should “lead by example” by having his friend and megadonor, tech billionaire Elon Musk, build one at Mar-a-Lago.
“Trump says communities that oppose data centers will end up ‘backwards’ and ‘poor,’” Sanders remarked Friday on social media. “Yesterday, Mar-a-Lago’s own Palm Beach County passed a year-long ban on these facilities.”
“Maybe,” the senator said, “Trump’s neighbors know something he doesn’t.”