EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump Faces Huge MAGA Backlash Over Support for 'World-Ending' AI Data Centers
Donald Trump has been facing MAGA backlash over support for AI data centers.
Sept. 18 2026, Published 12:57 p.m. ET
Donald Trump is facing one of his fiercest backlashes yet from within his own MAGA movement over his embrace of artificial intelligence and the sprawling data centers needed to power it, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The 80-year-old president has spent recent days championing AI as a potentially transformative force for the US economy, declaring on Truth Social the tech and the hulking data centers powering it "will be the Greatest Economic Development Engine in History – Bigger than Oil, Gold, Diamonds, or even the Internet."
MAGA Supporters Push Back Against Trump AI Stance
Donald Trump faced a fierce MAGA backlash over his embrace of AI.
But hundreds of responses from users on the platform Trump founded have savagely challenged his enthusiasm, with concerns ranging from jobs and energy use to surveillance and disruption in rural communities.
A political source told us: "This reaction represents an unusual pocket of dissent on a platform dominated by Trump's most committed supporters. Analysis of thousands of responses to his posts has found negative comments about AI and data centers substantially outnumbered supportive ones, including criticism from accounts whose profiles otherwise indicated strong support for Trump and the MAGA movement.
"The fact is, AI data centers are a huge threat to the environment and have been branded world-ending forces due to the amount of energy they are sucking up. For Trump to fail to acknowledge this, or the dangers of AI itself, has provoked huge criticism even from his more ardent supporters. The data centers are also considered huge eyesores."
Some online users suggested Trump should experience the impact himself by allowing a data center to be built at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, while others raised concerns about mass surveillance and the consequences of huge computing facilities being constructed in rural communities.
The backlash comes as public unease about the technology becomes increasingly difficult for politicians to ignore ahead of the midterm elections.
Midterm Polling And Working Class Job Concerns
Recent national polling revealed sharp public opposition to local data center construction.
A New York Times/Siena University poll conducted this month found 61% of likely voters opposed the construction of AI data centers, compared with 34% who supported them.
Republicans were almost evenly divided, with 49% supporting construction and 47% opposing it. Opposition reached 75% among Democrats and 60% among independents.
Raymond La Raja, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said Trump's enthusiasm risked colliding with concerns among his supporters about employment.
He told the Times: "It really doesn't play well to his base because a lot of those folks are probably worried about AI taking their jobs."
La Raja added support could disappear rapidly if the technology caused wider upheaval.
He said: "If things start to unravel with AI and we start seeing major social disruptions, you're going to see him do a quick reversal."
Dismissing Extinction Fears As A Hoax
The commander-in-chief dismissed fears of world-ending technology as a hoax.
Trump, however, has doubled down rather than retreated. He has argued restrictions risk undermining American competitiveness and dismissed warnings that rapidly developing AI could pose catastrophic dangers.
In another Truth Social post, Trump described fears of AI "taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad" as "a HOAX."
He later called himself the "Hoax Buster" while rejecting warnings AI could eventually "consume and destroy the World."
Energy Demands And Legislative Safeguards
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Donald Trump said data centers should make their own power.
Data centers have meanwhile become an increasingly significant political issue as communities confront questions about electricity demand, infrastructure, and who should shoulder the costs associated with their expansion.
The House has backed legislation intended to prevent existing electricity customers from bearing certain costs generated by new data centers.
Trump has previously argued data centers should produce their own electricity, maintaining communities hosting them could benefit from jobs, investment and lower taxes.
The political divide is already surfacing in election campaigns, with candidates facing pressure to spell out how they would handle further development.
Yet the president remains firmly committed to expansion, presenting the technology as essential to American economic power and competition with China – as some of his most loyal online supporters make increasingly clear they are far less convinced.
