President Donald Trump continued his criticism of data center opponents on Monday, angering some Kentuckians by singling out local communities who are resistant to developments in a social media post.
“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,” Trump wrote. “If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign.”
Public polling across the country has shown a growing bipartisan backlash against hyperscale data centers, the massive and high-energy-consuming facilities that power artificial intelligence services pushed by tech company giants. Such a backlash has also emerged in several rural and conservative communities in Kentucky over the past two years where developers are seeking to build them.
Trump’s post went on to say that “China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement,” building on his past suggestions that local opponents are funded by China in an effort to outpace American AI advancement. He added that if communities “kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.”
Republican state Rep. Savannah Maddox of Dry Ridge took issue with Trump’s post, writing in a social media post that “we are not stupid for wanting to protect our rural way of life.”
“Is this really a technology race with China, or is it an attempt to use government influence to line certain people’s pockets?” Maddox asked.
Maddox later told Kentucky Public Radio that Trump’s “tone deaf” push for data centers may cause political headwinds for Republican candidates across the country in the general election this fall.
“Messaging like that is going to get Republicans slaughtered in midterms,” Maddox said. “Because a lot of people who are rural-living Americans in the heartland have questions, maybe even concerns, about data centers. And to just act like those questions are not only invalid but stupid or possibly unpatriotic is not a great strategy.”
Spokespersons for the Republican supermajority leadership of the Kentucky Senate declined to comment on Trump’s post. Spokespersons for the GOP House leadership and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Democratic state Rep. Adam Moore of Lexington, who pushed in vain for more regulations on data centers in the 2026 legislative session in Frankfort, released a statement criticizing Trump’s post and claiming Republicans’ priorities are “billion-dollar corporations first, Kentuckians second.”
“Kentucky’s Republican Supermajority passed tax breaks to attract data centers,” Moore said. “Now their party leader is calling Kentuckians 'backward' simply for having the audacity to voice concerns about how these massive projects will affect their communities.”
Trump’s post also drew criticism from Dana Hanson of Harrodsburg, who is one of the locals organizing to put the brakes on a controversial hyperscale data center in Mercer County. A former lifelong Republican and Trump voter, Hanson says local communities deserve transparency from data center developers and local officials if they want to win their support.
“Rural communities are not backwards and poor because we refuse to hand over hundreds, if not thousands, of acres of farmland to a data center without asking the hard questions,” she said.
Hanson, who founded a new group called the Kentucky Transparency Project, says skepticism of the promises and benefits of data centers is bipartisan.
“Protecting our land, our resources, and our right to decide what happens in our own community is not a partisan issue,” Hanson said. “We'll demand that accountability from Republicans, Democrats, developers, and presidents alike.”
Some local officials in Kentucky have embraced data center projects over the past year, citing a promised flood of local tax revenue that can be used to fund schools and other government services.
Data centers are not expected to have similar effects on state tax revenue, as the General Assembly passed massive tax breaks in 2025 to lure them to Kentucky. The tax incentives exempt companies from sales and use taxes for 50 years on their data center computer equipment.
A recent report estimated Kentucky could lose more than $2 billion of sales tax revenue if just four of the proposed data centers are built, though some officials in both parties — including Beshear — want to roll back those tax breaks next year.
