A MAGA congressman on Monday thumbed his nose at President Donald Trump by deadpanning that he must be "backwards and poor," flinging Trump's own insult right back at him.

Trump lashed out at communities resisting the construction of AI data centers in a Truth Social post, suggesting that anyone who opposes the sprawling facilities prefers poverty.

"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," the president raged.

When MeidasTouch reporter Pablo Manríquez asked MAGA Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett for a reaction, the Republican didn't hesistate.

"I guess I'm backwards and poor," Burchett told Manríquez.

The 61-year-old congressman pressed further, insisting the massive facilities belong on military bases and blasting officials for bungling the public rollout.

"I think what we need to do is start putting those in military installations and places like that, and they've done a poor job of educating the public on those things," Burchett said.

"They're just 'oh, we're for them, and then you should be for them' kind of thing," he added. "We should have brought everybody to the table."

Trump's inflammatory remark puts him at odds with the country.

A June Reuters/Ipsos survey found that nearly eight in 10 Americans are concerned AI-powered data centers will send electricity bills soaring. A Gallup survey released in May found seven in 10 Americans oppose the construction of an AI data center in their local area, with 48 percent strongly opposed.

Backlash has rattled Republicans, with a National Republican Senatorial Committee memo warning that data centers have become "the anchor hanging around" Sen. Jon Husted's neck in Ohio, where former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has aired ads branding him "the face of data centers in Ohio."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) offered her own attack, telling MeidasTouch, "How about we put one in Mar-a-Lago?"

"We'll see how backwards and poor he is in response to that," she jabbed.

Trump warned in his post that defying the facilities only helps the country's adversaries.

"If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame," he wrote. "China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement."

President Donald Trump's announcement that the U.S. would profit from Venezuelan oil reserves is unlikely to bring relief to drivers anytime soon, according to an expert analysis.

Yahoo Finance senior columnist Rick Newman told "CNN News Central" the deal, as described by the 80-year-old president, is supposed to develop Venezuelan oil fields that haven't even broken ground yet, and he said drivers shouldn't expect it to yield meaningful new oil supplies for a decade or so.

"This sounds kind of phony, to be honest," Newman said. "Energy analysts are saying we're not going to see meaningful amounts of new oil if this actually goes through for at least five years, it could be 15 years. I mean, Trump seems really like he's just trying to grasp at anything to make drivers who are paying $4.09 a gallon think, 'Oh, maybe this will get a little bit better soon,' but I just don't think it's going to."

Newman also pointed to the bond market as a harder-to-parse but more consequential economic signal. The 10-year Treasury yield sits at 4.78 percent, higher than when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent intervened in an unprecedented attempt to push rates down — an intervention that, Newman said, evidently failed. He warned that continued failure risks eroding the credibility of both the Treasury Department and potentially the Federal Reserve, which would compound the problem.

Newman cautioned against reading the rate rise as an imminent crisis, describing it instead as a return to historical norms after roughly 15 years of unusually low borrowing costs. He said Americans should not expect to see 4 percent mortgage rates again, calling 7 percent closer to the historical average.

The real message from the bond market, Newman argued, is about debt, as markets are absorbing a surge of borrowing from the U.S. government, other governments, and companies issuing debt to fund AI infrastructure buildouts. That glut of debt is what's pushing interest rates higher, he said.

"The message from the bond market is, 'Hey, Uncle Sam, now is the time for you to start dealing with that $40 trillion pile of debt,'" Newman said, referring to the national debt. "You have to do something about it. Now is the time."

"Uncle Sam, though," added CNN's John Berman, "has his hands over his ears going, 'La la la la la la la – I'm not listening, I'm not listening.'"

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A mysterious ploy by President Donald Trump to combat soaring prices of an American kitchen staple may very well cripple an entire industry, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) warned Tuesday during an appearance on Fox Business.

Ground beef prices in the United States have continued to soar amid a severe cattle shortage exacerbated by a recent screwworm infestation that some critics have blamed on the Trump administration for axing screwworm monitoring programs, with some Americans ditching ground beef altogether. Trump’s solution, he announced recently, was to import 300,000 metric tons of ground beef from countries he refused to identify.

While a growing number of critics now believe the source of the mystery ground beef to be Argentina — a suspicion that’s disturbed onlookers — Massie argued that regardless of where the ground beef comes from, Trump’s plan was flawed at its core.

“We've been talking about why people are attracted to socialism: the beef market is a good example of 'let capitalism work.' When prices get high, yes, there is some pain, but that's a signal to farmers that you need to start keeping your heifers; instead of turning them into beef, turn them into momma cows and then that'll solve the problem,” Massie said.

“I'm afraid that what the president did with the announcement of bringing in 300,000 metric tons of Argentin — er, beef from overseas is that he's diddling with capitalism, and now the signal to farmers is it might not be profitable to keep your heifers and rebuild the herd.”

Instead, Massie pushed his bill to roll back federal health regulations regarding ranchers’ ability to sell directly to consumers, and condemned the 2015 repeal of mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef as a “slap in the face to cattlemen in the United States.”

Ground beef prices have increased dramatically over the past year, rising from an average of $6.25 a pound in July 2025 to $6.89 in July of this year, according to Fox Business. The average cost of a pound of ground beef in July 2023 was $5.10.