Trump’s achilles heel is turning his own voters against him

Erika Cook says her neighbours in rural Pennsylvania are not furious only about the data centre a developer wants to build, they feel “blindsided” by Donald Trump. Cook lives in Sugarloaf, one township over from Hazle Township, where a property company wants to build 15 giant structures on 1,300 acres. If the plan by Kansas-based NorthPoint, dubbed “Project Hazlenut”, goes ahead it will need 240ft-high power lines that will go on the 10 acres of property that Cook and her husband bought in 2022, destroying the value of their home. Cook, 42, a technical support specialist at an insurance company, is doing everything in her power to stop it. “A lot of people feel blindsided by all of it,” she told The i Paper, suggesting that anger in her community over the issue could have a dramatic effect on the US midterm elections next week, with lifelong Republicans turning their back on the President and his party. “The President is pushing for a lot of this but most people don’t want it,” said Cook. “Who wants that in their backyard or front yard? It does seem like the President has got more pro data centres in recent months – he seems to be in with the tech bros”. Erika Cook at her property near the proposed data centre development called ‘Project Hazelnut’ in Sugarloaf Township, Pennsylvania (Photo: Matthew Hatcher/AFP) Much of Trump’s political success has come from riding populist waves fuelled by grievances over issues such as immigration and crime. But that formula is under threat as Americans go to the polls on Tuesday. The President is out of step with public opinion on the increasingly high-profile issue of data centres, which are spreading rapidly to support the advance of AI. Common objections include damage to property values, and massive consumption of resources such as power and water.Trump has been full-throated in his support for AI, saying in September that “stupid people” don’t want them in their backyard. But with days to go before voting begins, and polls showing more than two thirds of Americans oppose data centres in their area, the President has changed his tone somewhat. Trump recently suggested he wants tech companies to pay a “dividend” to local residents to make up for the noise, pollution and destruction of their way of life for the project. Locals suspect the project is ultimately intended for Amazon. A spokesperson for the company told The i Paper: “As part of our plans to invest at least $20b in Pennsylvania, we are evaluating multiple sites across the Commonwealth. While we don’t have a definitive agreement in place, we are in discussions with NorthPoint.” In Hazle Township, the “dividend” arrived in June in the form of an offer to give every resident $10,000 (£7,500), with the total pot coming to $45m (£33m). In addition, NorthPoint offered to pay for a new police station and fund it for the next 15 years. The community has been unable to afford a police station until now. Grassroots opposition to the data centres is growing in Pennsylvania (Photo: Matthew Hatcher/AFP/Getty) Cook lives in nearby Sugarloaf so would not be entitled to the money – not that she would take it. “It’s a bribe”, she said, adding that NorthPoint only made the offer after local officials blocked the project and the company lost its appeal. “It’s wild,” said Cook. “At what point does no mean no?” If the project – currently on hold – does go ahead, the local power company will cut down trees either side of the power lines, which will stand 240ft tall and will have flashing lights on them to ward off passing planes. Some 500,000 volts of power will pass along the cables at all times. “If they build that then our home will go down in value,” Cook said. “I will be so far in the hole…who is going to buy a house with 500,000-volt power lines running through it?” Among those who have joined up with Cook to oppose the data centres is John Zola, a neighbour who is a Republican, and he is far from alone in his anger over the development. Cook said: “There hasn’t been something like this issue in our lifetimes and it could sway those people that normally wouldn’t be swayed out of their party lines. The midterms could go either way. Straight party line voters, normally you will never change them but I think this could be one of those times it does happen”. Outrage at data centres has reared up across the US in places which are normally reliably conservative states. In Butler County, Kansas, which Trump won by 70 per cent in 2024, a group calling itself “Protect the Heartland – NO DATA CENTERS” has support from Democrats and Republicans on Facebook. Among those who posted on the group’s Facebook page was a woman called Lane Volavka. She wrote: “Nobody is coming to help us. As a Trump voter and supporter, I can honestly say I think he and his Admin are making a HUGE mistake on this!” Tessa Gould, the director of the Lincoln Project, a group of moderate Republican voters, said that Trump’s support for data centres ultimately came down to self enrichment. She cited a recent report in the Washington Post that found $97m (£72m) of the money donated to the White House ballroom came from major tech, cloud and data centre companies. “The Trump administration is transactional and develops policy with an eye towards lining the pockets of those serving in the cabinet and leading the country,” she said. But complications arise when Trump voters face the prospect of having their own homes destroyed. “When the threat becomes so real that it is in your backyard, voters want to be part of the conversation from the beginning,” Gould said. Nick Ownes, a lawyer and Republican voter in Ohio’s rural Brown County, is a fierce opponent of data centre plans The picture is similar in Brown County, a rural community in Ohio, where locals are overwhelmingly opposed to a proposed data centre in Mount Orab. Nick Owens, a lawyer who is leading the opposition, told The i Paper that Trump’s support for such projects had left him questioning his backing of the President. “I’m a lifelong Republican, a former county Republican chairman and a former delegate at the Republican National Convention for Donald Trump,” he said. “But his unbridled support of data centres is tone-deaf to what the communities are experiencing across America “What would a hyperscale development do if it was put next to one of his golf courses or Mar-a-Lago. Would he want one of those?” Owens said he was flabbergasted that a politician like Trump could be so against his supporters on such a big issue. He said: “It’s crazy for a man who has had his finger on the pulse in a very populist way. He’s completely disengaged from what’s truly happening to rural areas who feel like their way of life is under attack”. The price of that position could become clear on Tuesday night.