President Donald Trump defended the rapid buildout of artificial intelligence data centers during an Ohio campaign rally on October 3, 2026, warning that rejecting the massive facilities would hand a technological advantage to China while arguing they bring substantial economic benefits to local communities.
Speaking to supporters at Butler High School in Vandalia, President Trump defended data centers as vital infrastructure for maintaining America’s lead in artificial intelligence. He urged voters to support Republican candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican Sen. Jon Husted ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, framing the technological expansion as an economic imperative.
There’s so much money to be made for Ohio. You can’t just turn them off. They’ll go to China,
Trump told the crowd at the campaign rally outside Dayton.
Trump argued that nations or regions rejecting the infrastructure risk descending into poverty, stating in an interview with Time Magazine that towns missing out on the technology would experience squalor and joblessness. At the rally, he emphasized that utilities might need to build new power plants, substations, and transmission lines for massive data center loads.
Financial Stakes and Conflict of Interest Scrutiny
Even as the administration pushes communities to embrace the multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects, Trump holds up to $9.5M in companies that operate data centers or supply them with necessary equipment, generating scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers.
“Neither President Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence, or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are bought or sold.”
Davis Ingle, White House spokesperson
Trump Backs Legislation to Stop Data Centers Raising Bills
The national buildout has triggered a fierce backlash as at least 45 projects worth nearly $68 billion were blocked or delayed by local opposition between April and June due to local opposition and grid capacity concerns.
Electricity bills sit at the center of the backlash. To address concerns that households and other businesses could be stuck with higher bills, Trump backed legislation pushed by Husted that would stop data centers from raising electricity costs and require them to pay their own way.
The administration previously advanced the Ratepayer Protection Pledge in March, with Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI committing to build, bring, or buy the power their data centers need and pay for required grid upgrades. That pledge expanded in July to cover more than 200 additional utilities, developers, cooperatives, and states.
In Congress, the House of Representatives earlier passed the Ratepayer Protection Act by 417 votes to three to require state utility regulators to consider standards making large loads cover the full incremental cost of generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades. However, the measure faced roadblocks in the Senate, where it failed to clear a procedural hurdle in a 57-43 vote with only four Democrats siding with every Republican senator.
Tech Executives Sign Voluntary AI Safety Accord
Public resistance remains deep-seated despite industry assurances.
To counter mounting skepticism, the White House hosted a lunch with technology executives on September 29, at which the leaders of Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI, and Nvidia signed a voluntary AI safety accord.
Trump described the document as a voluntary accord and a morally binding safety pact, though it is not legally enforceable, noting he is considering a 10-person board to oversee AI safety. The approach drew sharp criticism from figures like Senator Elizabeth Warren, who dismissed self-regulation as a recipe for disaster.