U.S. President Donald Trump gestures after exiting Air Force One as U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) looks on, following a campaign rally for U.S. Senator Darline Graham (R-SC), at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., August 21, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump has put himself in an "unusual position" after he overlooked a populist groundswell that a younger Trump may have pounced on, according to a new analysis.
According to recent polling, upwards of three-quarters of Americans are against building new artificial intelligence data centers. Yet Trump has continued to hawk data centers, claiming recently that communities that resist them are making a "big mistake" because of their potential to generate revenue.
David Graham, a staff writer at The Atlantic, argued in a recent article that Trump's positioning puts him strangely at odds with a "groundswell" that could consume his presidency.
"This puts Trump, the most successful demagogue in American political history, in the unusual position of misreading and opposing a populist groundswell," Graham wrote.
He noted that Trump has taken several unpopular stands throughout his political career. For instance, "Trump broke with Republicans in claiming that he would protect social-welfare programs such as Medicare and Social Security, and he broke a bipartisan consensus by attacking free-trade agreements and promising protectionism," Graham wrote.
"On these matters (as well as on his willingness to encourage and participate in gutter racism), Trump demonstrated that a big constituency existed for views that other politicians had deemed electoral liabilities," he added.
That's part of what makes Trump's inability to grasp the issue with data centers so perplexing, Graham suggested.
"Data centers’ political arc has been different. Initially, many officials seemed to back the centers, following exactly Trump’s logic: They offered jobs and tax benefits. But as public opinion turned—driven by a mix of backlash to AI in general, environmental concerns, worries about energy prices, and old-fashioned NIMBYism—politicians changed their view as well," Graham wrote.
"The AI facilities store terabytes of data, but the president can’t get access to the information about them that he needs," he added.