Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday challenged President Donald Trump to "lead by example" after Trump declared this week that every community in America should want a data center, despite growing opposition to Big Tech's data center buildout from coast to coast.

"Trump thinks that every community in America should welcome a data center," Sanders said. "Great idea. Lead by example. Have your friend Elon build one at Mar-a-Lago."

Polling has repeatedly shown that people in the United States are uncomfortable with the rapid expansion of data centers, which large technology companies are building to manage the computing power and energy required for artificial intelligence and an increasingly digitized world.

Local protests have been popping up in states nationwide against plans to establish large-scale data centers without proper guardrails or regulations in place, turning the issue into a lightning rod heading into the midterms. Because the United States has no comprehensive federal framework governing where such facilities can be sited, those decisions rest largely with county commissions, city councils, and state utility regulators—making each local vote a key arena in which the industry's expansion is contested. The deep pockets of Silicon Valley—including tech giants like Google, OpenAI, Meta, and other behemoths—have emerged as villains willing to spend millions in campaign contributions and lobbying efforts to sway candidates and lawmakers toward their profit-seeking aims. Several of those companies have announced multibillion-dollar programs to expand the computing capacity behind their AI products, the demand driving the current construction wave.

In Congress, Sanders has led the charge for deeper conversations about the impact of AI, demanding that any buildout of the technology, including data center construction, be carried out with the health of workers, communities, and society overall front and center.

A poll released Thursday showed that 75% of Americans oppose large data centers being built in their community, with 61% of those respondents saying they are "strongly" opposed.

In July, Trump said local elected officials have to convince their constituents that data centers are good for them and that opposition is futile. "You can't fight it," Trump said. "You have to go with it."

Asked earlier this week about the growing opposition, Trump suggested people did not know what was good for them, saying, "If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant, or a data center, I would absolutely want it." Trump said the industry needed better public relations but said nothing about the need for stronger regulations or better ways for the corporations behind the centers to actually mitigate the legitimate concerns people have.

Trump: "If I were the mayor of a town or the governor or a state, and I had a chance to get a big data center, I would absolutely want it" pic.twitter.com/9caqZ8L76b — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 19, 2026

On Friday, Trump was asked again about his support for data centers and offered more of the same: "If I were a community, I would want the data center."

Trump: "If I were a community, I would want the data center." This has been completely underreported but the reason Trump is pushing data centers is that he is profiting from them. His financial records show he holds or has traded millions of dollars in shares of companies… pic.twitter.com/KbicUGBrYn — Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) August 21, 2026

It was these comments that apparently led Sanders and other critics to denounce Trump's position as either insincere or out of touch.

While Palm Beach County is home to a number of relatively small data centers, which are ubiquitous across the US, it has no large-scale or hyperscale data centers—the facilities drawing so much scrutiny and opposition nationwide.

As The Guardian reported, a proposal for a "huge" hyperscale data center in Palm Beach County, known as Project Tango, exemplifies why such projects are so controversial, largely because of how they may affect air and water quality, along with the potential to consume water resources and raise energy costs for local utility customers.

"Local environmentalists warn that the proposed 600MW data center in western Palm Beach County could damage the wetlands," the newspaper reported, "which the federal government and the state of Florida have spent a combined $6bn to restore after decades of drainage and development."

Opponents of Project Tango—including educators, homeowners, conservationists, and local lawmakers—cite threats to local drinking water, algae blooms in the nearby fragile Everglades ecosystem, increased air pollution, and concerns about impacts on health and family budgets as worrying factors.

"We don't want our bills to go up, but it's more than that," Sue Ellen Loyzelle, who lives in the planned community of Arden next to the Project Tango site and is a founding member of the Western Palm Beach Community Alliance, explained to The Guardian.

"I would like to not see them at all," she said, but if "there was to be one, it would have to be far away from homes because of the sound and the health impacts of air pollution. But the water, I don't think Florida could handle it anywhere with the water issues."

On July 15, after 12 hours of public testimony from citizens—a majority of whom were outraged over the proposal, including many who identified as Republicans otherwise aligned with Trump politically—the county commissioners voted 5-1 against the proposed expansion.

With no federal siting standards in place, the trajectory of the buildout is being decided vote by vote in county chambers and statehouses—and in whether Congress answers calls like Sanders's for enforceable guardrails—a question that will shadow candidates into the midterms.

Trump thinks that every community in America should welcome a data center. Great idea. Lead by example. Have your friend Elon build one at Mar-a-Lago. — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 21, 2026