Some Ohio voters who backed Donald Trump are beginning to question whether the president will follow through on his pledges to revive American manufacturing and prioritize blue-collar jobs, as frustration grows over the rising cost of living.

Worries about inflation in groceries, housing, and gasoline have been building nationwide, while job opportunities and wages appear stagnant. For some of Trump's most loyal supporters, his embrace of artificial intelligence and data centers seems at odds with the economic commitments that won their votes.

"I hate [AI and data centers] with a passion," William Akel, a 26-year-old resident of Niles, Ohio, told The Washington Post. "AI is going to take the jobs, and then what jobs are we going to have? Probably fixing the AI?"

"I think he's just lost in the sauce," Akel added of Trump. "He sees [AI] as a way to make more money. … They're putting billions and billions into all that. Where's it all coming from? You've got people starving here."

In Liberty, Ohio, Brian, a 54-year-old who voted for Trump in all three of his elections, echoed the sentiment. "I'm extremely disappointed in him," he said, declining to give his last name, citing the heightened political climate and concern for his own safety. "I fell for it."

Trump defended his support for the projects during a visit to Ohio earlier this month, telling a crowd at Butler High School in Vandalia that the data centers would be an economic boost for the area. "We want them," Trump said. "Look, there's so much to be made for Ohio, you can't just turn them off. They'll go to China."

The friction points to a broader tension in the country's data center boom: the warehouse-scale facilities that house the servers behind AI require large amounts of electricity and land, and they generally employ far fewer permanent workers than the manufacturing plants that once anchored industrial economies like Ohio's.

The gap between promise and reality was underscored when a nearby truck factory laid off nearly 1,400 workers just days before Trump's rally — some of the same blue-collar employees Trump promised would have better opportunities under his administration. Kyle Bos, an employee at Navistar, the truck factory in question, told PBS that he voted for Trump three times but has lost faith in him.

"Something has to change politically in this country," said Bos, a member of the United Auto Workers who identifies as a centrist. "Seems like it just kept getting worse and worse and worse."

More than 3 million Ohio residents voted for Trump in 2024. That number could shrink considerably as locals continue to complain about rising costs for basic necessities. The state, which Trump has carried in all three of his presidential campaigns, has races for governor and a U.S. Senate seat on the upcoming midterm ballot — contests likely to be watched for signs of how, or whether, the discontent voiced in places like Niles and Liberty shows up at the polls.

Akel acknowledged that he voted for Trump in 2020, chose Kamala Harris in 2024, and is undecided about the upcoming midterm elections. Brian said he now plans to vote only in local races, saying neither party's candidates for Senate or governor move him. Like Akel, he is concerned about the data centers.

"We're going to pay for all of this," Brian said. "We always do."