President Trump is requiring new large data centers to create their own electricity and share surplus power with nearby towns, a push he says can cut rates and turn local opposition into support.
President Trump announced early Wednesday that new and large data centers must produce their own power and give or sell any excess back to the surrounding community or the grid.
He also urged companies to pay communities and residents a “dividend,” arguing that cash deals have already flipped unpopular projects into welcome ones.
Breitbart News reported the directive, which Trump laid out in a Truth Social post as local backlash against data centers keeps rising across towns and states.
Trump framed the move as a direct answer to electric-bill pressure and community resistance. He said he has watched the industry closely and reached a firm conclusion about how these facilities should operate.
In the Truth Social post, Trump wrote that oversized new facilities cannot simply lean on existing supply and leave households holding higher costs.
"As the President of the United States, I have been watching Data Centers very closely, and have come to a very strong conclusion. New and large, in some cases gigantic, Data Centers are mandated by me to make their own electricity, and give or sell any excess back to the local community, or grid, and therefore there is electric price increase. In fact, there could be a substantial decrease. Other elements likewise! If companies want to make their Data Centers popular, pay the community, and/or individuals within the community, a “dividend.” I have watched the process closely, and Data Centers that were highly unpopular in a certain area, have become extremely popular when a financial deal is struck. MAKE DEALS, and get them built!!! GREAT FOR THE U.S.A. President DJT"
He gave no public details on metering, interconnection rules, pricing, or enforcement. The post did not name a statute, executive order, or agency process for the mandate.
Still, the direction was plain: build generation on site, return surplus to the local system, and put money on the table for the people who live next door.
Earlier this year, Trump pressed data center companies to pledge they would supply or procure their own power while limiting disruption to nearby communities. Those pledges have not stopped opposition from growing.
Towns and states are pursuing moratoriums on new approvals. Some are rolling back tax exemptions that once helped lure the projects.
Amazon and Meta have each pledged at least $1 billion to communities that host their data centers. Trump pointed to that kind of financial deal as the path from hostility to acceptance.
The Wall Street Journal also reported on the Truth Social announcement, underscoring how closely the White House is tracking the fight over power demand and local consent.
Trump’s Wednesday message followed a harder line he took in August. Then he told communities that rejecting data centers was a choice between decline and growth.
"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,"
He added a second line in the same vein.
"If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign."
The new post keeps that pro-build stance while adding a neighbor-first condition: if the facilities want local goodwill, they should carry their own electric load and share the upside.
Data centers are expanding fast to serve cloud computing and artificial intelligence. That load can strain grids and show up in residential bills when companies draw from the same system as households and small businesses.
Trump’s answer is straightforward. The firms building gigantic centers should create power themselves. Excess should flow back to the community or the grid. In his telling, that setup avoids price spikes and can even produce a substantial decrease.
He tied popularity to pocketbook results. Unpopular sites became “extremely popular,” he said, once a financial deal was struck. The “dividend” idea extends that logic from one-off packages to a clearer community return.
Amazon’s and Meta’s billion-dollar community pledges show major players already know local consent has a price. Trump is pressing the rest of the sector to follow and to stop treating nearby towns as an afterthought.
The president closed with an order of operations: make the deals, then get the centers built. He called the outcome great for the country.
That message lines up with a basic conservative priority. Growth should not mean open-ended subsidies from ratepayers or blank-check tax breaks that leave towns stuck with higher costs and thinner leverage.
Companies that want the land, the water access, and the political runway can fund their own generation and put cash or power benefits in local hands. Communities that want jobs and a broader tax base can negotiate from strength instead of watching bills climb.
Open questions remain. Trump did not spell out how a dividend would be calculated, who would receive it, or how surplus sales would be priced. He did not list which towns or states have already moved on moratoriums or tax-break rollbacks. The “early Wednesday” post carried no formal legal instrument in the reporting.
What he did state was the standard he expects for new and large facilities: make your own electricity, share the excess, and pay communities enough that the projects earn their welcome.
Tech giants chasing massive campuses can fund their own power and cut locals in on the upside, or keep fighting towns that refuse to eat the costs for them.
