The Memo: Trump’s AI advocacy lands with a thud, even among some in GOP

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The Hill's Headlines (PM) - September 16, 2026

The Hill's Headlines (PM) - September 16, 2026

President Trump has long prided himself on his ability to instinctively sense the views of the public on a whole range of hot-button issues.

But some in his own party are worried that he may be dramatically out of step on two intertwined issues that have suddenly become central to the national debate: artificial intelligence and the data centers that power it.

Trump has repeatedly expressed enthusiasm for these new developments. He has even — and often — argued that those who are criticizing the nascent industry are engaging in a “hoax.”

On Monday alone, he unleashed a barrage of social media messages defending AI and lambasting the warnings of significant downsides to the growth of the industry.

In one characteristically ebullient post, the president wrote, “AI, and Data Centers, will be the Greatest Economic Development Engine in History ­­— Bigger than Oil, Gold, Diamonds, or even the Internet. It will not be stopped by brilliantly run Destructive Forces during the Term of President DONALD J. TRUMP!”

In another, he equated people sounding warnings about AI and data centers to environmental activists who warn about climate change. Trump has long been skeptical of climate change, despite the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence showing its baleful effects.

The anti-AI forces, Trump contended, are “Revolutionaries, but Revolutionaries for a Bad and Evil Cause.”

Perhaps most substantive — and most controversial — was yet another post in which Trump contended there was no real need for further regulation of AI, at least so........

© The Hill