President Donald Trump delved right back into one of his most controversial policy positions in a no-holds-barred interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham, new clips of which were released on Friday.
Specifically, he told communities rejecting the development of new data centers to get over it.
"My message is that do what you want but if you want to be poor, have no jobs and watch other countries do great, or other states do great, you know, West Virginia has been very proactive, they will go other places," said Trump.
"If you want to make a lot of money, if you want to make a lot more money than you've ever made before, if you want to see your house go up, your education go better, I would suggest you — you use the word guardrails, put them in the right areas," he continued. "But you don't want to kill the golden goose because that's what you would be doing. You would be killing the golden goose. This is the oil of the next 50 years in many ways."
Data centers which have exploded in construction due to the rise in demand for servers to power AI models, have provided tax revenue and some jobs for local communities. But they have also run into heavy opposition over environmental and local nuisance concerns, as well as skepticism from activists who don't trust the advancement of AI technology.
The hostility to data centers is widespread and crosses party lines, with many areas that voted for Trump fighting local data center construction tooth and nail. As the issue has heated up, many GOP governors who initially welcomed data center development have started to pump the brakes.