President Donald Trump's own political operation is quietly attacking Democrats over an industry the president has spent months hyping as a windfall.
No Going Back PAC, an offshoot of Trump's super PAC MAGA Inc., sent out a mailer targeting Jamie Ager, the Democrat running in North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, for being "open to large AI data centers," Popular Information reported Thursday. The mailer also accuses Ager of "putting...AI data centers ahead of North Carolinians."
That message runs directly against what Trump himself has been saying. In an August Truth Social post, the president argued that communities rejecting data centers were choosing to be "backwards and poor," and he warned critics, "If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame."
Trump has described the facilities as "fabulous" and "absolutely beautiful," and he has claimed that "data centers could be bigger than oil." In a September interview with TIME, he suggested that anyone who opposes them must want "to live in a crime-infested area, squalor, all the things that go along with it." He added in that same interview, "It doesn't mean I want them right next to my house, but certainly I like them in my county."
The likely reason for the split is that projects poll badly, Popular Information noted. A Gallup survey from March found more than 70 percent of Americans oppose having AI data centers built near where they live.
The mailer also misrepresents Ager's position, according to Popular Information. It cites an April interview with Mountain Xpress in which Ager said data centers "need to work for us, not the other way around" and praised the town of Canton for enacting a moratorium. In an October 8 Facebook post, Ager went further, writing that the facilities "are not good neighbors" and backing a one-year pause on new construction.
Ager isn't the only target. No Going Back also ran a TV ad in Colorado accusing Democrat Jessica Killin of "profiting off companies pushing for data centers" through a lobbying firm her husband co-founded. The Colorado Sun found it could not identify any of the firm's clients that directly own or run data centers, and Killin's campaign said she backs a moratorium on a proposed facility in El Paso County.