AOC says put data centers at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has a suggestion for where the next AI data center should go: near President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort after he argued that communities opposing the massive facilities risk becoming "backwards and poor."

The New York Democrat's comments put the spotlight on data centers, which are an increasingly heated political issue nationwide, drawing backlash from residents worried about noise, energy consumption, water use and their impact on surrounding neighborhoods. The debate is also creating unusual divisions within the Republican Party, with some GOP lawmakers distancing themselves from projects that Trump has enthusiastically embraced.

"How about we put one in Mar-a-Lago? I love that. Let's put a data center up in Mar-a-Lago; we'll see how backwards and poor he is in response to that," Ocasio-Cortez told MeidasTouch's Pablo Manríquez on Aug. 31.

Ocasio-Cortez was responding to comments Trump made Aug. 31 defending data centers and criticizing communities pushing back on new developments.

"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," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/