Did Trump's "AI dream" unexpectedly hit a wall? The biggest resistance comes from his former "safe haven."

More than 300 residents, wearing camouflage hats and red clothes symbolizing the unity of "MAGA," filled the entire meeting room and vehemently protested against a proposed data center plan. They accused the data center of encroaching on their farmland and disrupting the peaceful rhythm of their valley.

Finally, the data center planning project was cancelled with a 6-to-1 vote, and this decision was met with thunderous applause on the spot.

This scene took place at a meeting of the rural planning commission in Pennsylvania last month. These protesters are from Montour County, Pennsylvania - a remote small county in Pennsylvania and a "safe seat" for Trump's Republican Party. In last year's U.S. presidential election, the Republican Party won in Montour County by a 20-point margin.

However, these once die-hard supporters of Trump have now become the biggest obstacle to the Trump administration's efforts to accelerate the construction of artificial intelligence infrastructure. This phenomenon is now playing out across the United States.

Is Trump's "safe seat" blocking Trump's AI dream?

Amid the boom in artificial intelligence, the Trump administration is vigorously promoting the construction of data centers across the United States to maintain the country's competitiveness in the field of artificial intelligence.

In this process, rural areas in the United States have become key targets for large-scale data center projects because the construction of data centers requires a large amount of inexpensive land and abundant electricity.

However, this trend has encountered widespread resistance in many remote rural areas. Rural residents have accused that the construction of these data centers is destroying their communities without their consent.

As reflected by the doubts raised by hundreds of residents in Montour County to government officials and corporate executives, these opponents are worried that data centers may increase local residents' utility bills, reduce the area of cultivated land, and put pressure on local water resources and natural resources.

Take the data center plan in Montour County as an example: Talen Energy, the company responsible for this project, plans to rezone approximately 1,300 acres of land in Montour County from agricultural use to industrial use. This is the first step in building a large data center, which will include 12 to 15 buildings and will occupy a large amount of local farmland and dirt roads where soybeans and corn are currently being grown.

However, local residents are worried that losing this land will weaken the local agricultural economy, and a nearby factory that processes soybeans for local food and feed will also be affected.

These farmers who originally supported the Republican Party have therefore formed an alliance with environmentalists who usually support the Democratic Party, crossing party lines and joining forces to resist the expansion of data centers.

Can't have both the "AI dream" and votes?

In fact, the opposition incident in Montour County mentioned above is not uncommon in the United States.

According to a report by Data Center Watch earlier this year, data center construction projects in the United States are currently facing local resistance in states such as Texas, Oregon, and Tennessee. At least $64 billion worth of data center projects have been blocked or postponed. In the second quarter of this year alone, 20 data center projects across the United States have faced similar resistance.

If this resistance further expands, it may slow down the pace of the Trump administration and the technology industry in building artificial intelligence infrastructure, making the United States lag behind its global competitors.

Political strategists have also warned that as the 2026 mid-term elections draw closer, the dissatisfaction of Trump's die-hard supporters with these projects may also exacerbate the decline in the Republican Party's support rate.

However, at least for now, these protesting residents have not blamed Trump for the data center construction plans. Instead, they have pointed the finger at those technology giants - they accuse these technology companies of using large amounts of money to buy up farmland, destroying the rural landscape, and making local residents bear higher utility costs.

Teresa McCollum, a 70-year-old Trump supporter, said, "I think this society has forgotten the little people - those who live here, those farmers who are struggling in the economy."

Electricity costs have soared

In fact, in the wave of large-scale construction of data centers by U.S. technology giants, Pennsylvania has become an investment hotspot due to its rich and stable power resources. Amazon, Google under Alphabet, and Microsoft have all invested tens of billions of dollars here. Constellation Energy has even set its sights on the closed Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in the area, hoping to restart it to provide power for its new data center.

But local residents are worried that they may end up paying the bill.

According to data from the regional grid operator PJM Interconnection, Pennsylvania's utility companies expect that by the end of 2030, the electricity demand of local data centers will increase sharply, with a power scale sufficient to supply millions of households.

According to federal data, the electricity price in Pennsylvania has increased by about 15% in the past year, approximately twice the national average.

For many families, the living pressure brought about by this trend is already obvious. According to data from the research institution "Century Foundation," since 2022, the growth rate of local utility bill arrears has far exceeded inflation, and Pennsylvania has also become one of the states with the highest levels of household electricity debt in the United States.

The political landscape in some parts of the United States has been affected

These economic pressures have begun to reshape the political landscape in some parts of the United States.

Earlier this year, Alicia Johnson became one of the two Democrats elected to the Georgia Public Service Commission for the first time since 2007. During her campaign, the continuously rising electricity bills and the uncontrolled expansion of data centers in the area were her core issues.

She said that her campaign issues foreshadow the problems that states like Pennsylvania may face in next year's U.S. mid-term elections.

In recent years, the electricity price in Georgia has risen significantly, largely due to the substantial cost overruns of the newly built Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in the area.

Johnson said, "Data centers and utility costs are the two most important issues in voting. People are very angry... They don't want data centers without proper regulations, and they don't want to pay for data centers. This will be part of the national debate on the affordability of the cost of living in 2026."

In recent months, the non-profit environmental organization "Food and Water Watch" has been mobilizing residents in Pennsylvania to oppose the construction of data centers in places like Montour County. Ginny Marcille-Kerslake, the leader of this organization, predicts that under the influence of the data center construction boom, there will be a major reshuffle of the political situation in the United States next year.

She said, "Communities - red, blue, and those in between - have united to oppose (the construction of data centers)." She was referring to the so-called red areas controlled by the Republican Party and the so-called blue areas controlled by the Democratic Party. "This issue has brought people together at a time when we are so divided."

This article is from the WeChat official account "Science and Technology Innovation Daily." Author: Liu Rui. Republished by 36Kr with permission.