Poll: 72% of Americans Don't Want a Data Centre Nearby
Two in Three Americans Reject New Data Centres — and Trump's AI Handling
Donald Trump has a theory about data centres: towns that hate them will learn to love them once money changes hands. This week, the American public answered — no, thanks. A new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, released Wednesday, finds 72% of Americans don't want a data centre in their own community, 57% say AI is bad for society, and 67% disapprove of how Trump is handling the technology. Twelve days before the midterms, the White House's favourite AI pitch is running headfirst into the voters it was supposed to win over.
The numbers are not close. They are not partisan, either — majorities of Republicans and Democrats alike oppose a data centre going up near their homes, and majorities of both parties say Washington isn't doing enough to regulate AI. This is the rare issue in American politics where the countryside and the suburbs, the young and the old, are all pointing the same way: away.
A "No Data Center" sign in Logan County, July 2026 — the mood the new poll captures in numbers. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
The headline numbers are brutal
A 57% majority of US adults say artificial intelligence is bad for society, against 42% who say it is good — and the pessimists feel it far more strongly. Seventeen percent call AI "extremely" bad for society; just 2% call it "extremely" good. The young are the gloomiest of all: 65% of Americans under 30 say AI is bad for society, along with 59% of those aged 30 to 39 and a slimmer 53% of those 40 and older. — a gloom that rhymes with a separate poll on AI and human decisions. Democrats (63%) and independents (58%) land on the negative side, while Republicans are split down the middle — 51% say AI is good for society, 47% say it is bad.
The verdict on Trump is harsher still. Only 30% approve of how he is handling AI; 67% disapprove — a rating the Washington Post notes is in the same neighbourhood as public opinion of his Iran policy, which sits at 70% disapproval. Approval reaches 80% among MAGA Republicans, who make up about six in ten Republicans, but collapses to 49% among other Republicans, half of whom disapprove. Democrats (92%) and independents (75%) disapprove by overwhelming margins.
Then there's the number that should worry both parties: 49% of Americans say they trust neither party to handle AI. Democrats are trusted by 26% of respondents, Republicans by 19%. Back in April, the two parties were roughly level — which tells you how fast this issue has curdled for everyone in Washington.
The poll was conducted online from October 9 to 13 among 2,545 US adults reached through Ipsos's KnowledgePanel, a probability-based panel of households recruited by mail. The overall margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points — 2.8 points for questions put to half the sample. These are not vibes; they're measurements.
The data-centre revolt is bipartisan — and fiercely local
Two-thirds of Americans — 66% — oppose building new data centres in the United States at all. That opposition climbs to 72% when the data centre would go up in their own community. Local opposition crosses every line pollsters usually draw: 81% of Democrats, 76% of independents and 58% of Republicans are against one nearby. Eighty percent of adults under 30 agree. Rural Americans are the most opposed at 78%, but 72% of suburbanites and 69% of city dwellers say the same. Only 30% of Americans support building more data centres nationally — a figure that rises to just 53% even among Republicans who call themselves MAGA supporters.
What's driving it? Asked about possible effects of AI's growth, Americans saw far more risks than benefits. Seventy-three percent see a high risk of AI hacking secure computer systems; 65% see a high risk of it eliminating many jobs; 62% fear people losing the ability to make decisions without AI; 54% worry about widening economic inequality. About one in three see a high or very high risk of human extinction — a fear that, for comparison, outruns the 37% who tell Gallup they're at least somewhat worried that they or a family member will be a terrorism victim.
The benefits, meanwhile, barely register. Only 34% see a big chance AI will make everyday tasks easier; 30% see a big chance of US dominance in AI; 20% a big chance of making people more productive; and a mere 13% a big chance of creating many new jobs. The jobs gap is the starkest: 52% say AI has little or no chance of creating many new jobs.
The poll also put human faces on the numbers, and one of them lives in Ohio — the state where this fight may be decided. "To me it seems they aren't doing anything, and that's not acceptable," said Robby Strock, a 38-year-old pastor in Canton, Ohio, who described himself as a registered Democrat, speaking about government inaction on AI regulation. He called tax breaks for data centres in Ohio a "huge mess up in state government."
Another respondent, Mariah Arlt, a 33-year-old stay-at-home mother in Farmington, Missouri, described the contradiction a lot of Americans are living: AI services have been "imperfect but very helpful" in a housing-related legal case she struggled to navigate alone — but she has also felt deceived by AI-generated videos she believed were real, and she doesn't want her two children using AI as a substitute for human interaction. "When it comes to AI and computers, yes, they're helpful. But they should more be for entertainment purposes," she said.
Inside a large data centre. Americans want far fewer of these built near them — 72% oppose one in their own community. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Trump's "dividend" pitch collides with the poll
Here's where the timing turns the poll into a political event. On Wednesday, the same day these findings landed, Trump was on Truth Social arguing that data-centre developers should pay a "dividend" to the communities where they build. "I have watched the process closely, and data centres that were highly unpopular in a certain area, have become extremely popular when a financial deal is struck," he wrote, according to Reuters. He added that new, large data centres are "mandated by me to make their own electricity, and give or sell any excess back to the local community, or grid."
It's the same playbook we've been covering all week: Trump's $15,000 pitch to get towns to take data centres, and his "pay your own way" demand on the tech giants. The theory is consistent — opposition is a pricing problem, and the right cheque fixes it.
The poll suggests the theory is wrong. Seventy-two percent don't want one nearby. That's not a number that moves with a dividend; it's a number that says the product itself is rejected. Amazon has reportedly offered $1 billion to win towns over, and a new bill in Congress would make data centres pay for the power they use — yet the opposition keeps climbing. Gallup found 71% opposition back in March; this poll finds 72% in October. The money is getting bigger and the answer isn't changing.
The tech industry knows it has a problem, which is why the past week has looked like a scramble to share the spoils: Anthropic committed 5% of its shares to a new fund for the "public good" over the weekend, and Elon Musk pledged on Monday to give one SpaceX share to "every kid in America." When the richest companies on earth start handing out equity to children, you know the polling is bad.
Midterm math: candidates are running from the data centres
The poll lands less than two weeks before the November 3 midterms, and it explains why AI and data centres have become hot topics in races that were supposed to be about anything else — including the tight contest for Ohio governor and US Senate seats in Ohio and Michigan. "Numerous Republicans who are running in the midterms have distanced themselves from the White House's approach to AI, particularly its championing of AI data centres," the Post reports.
Kyle Kondik, an elections analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, put it more bluntly: "I think the White House has a tin ear on this one." He said Trump's usually strong political instincts are failing him on data centres — a striking thing to say about a president whose instincts are normally treated as the weather.
The White House, for its part, isn't conceding the premise. Spokeswoman Liz Huston said the administration is turning AI and data centres into "engines of prosperity with appropriate protections," adding: "President Trump is committed to ensuring America continues to lead the world in super intelligence while protecting American consumers" — "super intelligence" being the administration's preferred term for artificial intelligence.
And here's the judgment call. Trump's dividend pitch is a botched answer to a real question. The public isn't haggling over the price of data centres; it's rejecting the premise that more of them are inevitable or desirable. Sixty-seven percent say the federal government isn't doing enough to regulate AI — including a majority of Republicans — while the White House's position is that the industry should police itself. Last month, AI bosses signed what the Post describes as a "morally binding" pact at the White House to do exactly that, after Trump dismissed AI safety warnings as a "hoax." The poll is, in effect, the public reading that pact and asking: that's it?
The colossal misread is thinking this is about electricity bills or tax revenue. Robby Strock's complaint wasn't about the price — it was that "they aren't doing anything." Mariah Arlt's wasn't about dividends — it was about wanting AI confined to low-stakes uses. The opposition is cultural and civic before it's financial, which is why Britain's own data-centre backlash looks so similar despite a completely different political system. You can't buy your way out of a trust deficit with the very thing people distrust.
One footnote worth quoting verbatim, because we read the full syndicated writeup and this parenthesis says a lot: "(The Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)" Even the paper reporting the public's AI anxiety is in business with an AI company. If that doesn't capture the strangeness of this moment, nothing does.
Update, Oct. 23: the power-bill fight just got personal in Ohio
The week after the poll, the power-bill fight turned into the Ohio Senate race. Sherrod Brown, challenging Jon Husted, branded his opponent "the face of data centers" and pledged to "require the data centers pay the full cost of their electricity, not you" (Roll Call, via the Daily Caller, Oct 19). The vehicle for that promise — Husted's Ratepayer Protection Act, H.R. 9340 — had already died in the Senate on Sept 30, falling 57–43, three votes short of breaking the filibuster, with four Democrats voting yes and the rest of the no votes from Democrats and the two independents (Senate roll call via Daily Caller). Husted's office says he will try again through bipartisan permitting legislation. The stakes are no longer abstract: NPR reporting, via Universe News Network on Oct 22, estimates Maryland households are paying roughly $168–$216 more a year on electricity bills primarily because of the data-centre boom, while Ohio alone has more than 200 data centres operating, under construction or planned. And Trump, on Truth Social, boiled his pitch down to a slogan: "If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign." (Al Jazeera, Oct 21.)
Frequently asked questions
What did the ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll find about AI?
A 57% majority of US adults say AI is bad for society, against 42% who say it is good. Sixty-seven percent disapprove of how President Trump is handling AI, and roughly two-thirds say the federal government isn't doing enough to regulate the technology.
When was the poll conducted, and how many people were surveyed?
The poll was conducted online from October 9 to 13, 2026, among 2,545 US adults reached through Ipsos's KnowledgePanel. The overall margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.
How many Americans oppose new data centres?
Sixty-six percent oppose building new data centres in the US, rising to 72% when one would be built in their own community. Opposition is bipartisan: 81% of Democrats, 76% of independents and 58% of Republicans oppose one nearby.
What did Trump say about data centres paying dividends?
In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump said companies building data centres should pay a "dividend" to local communities to make the developments popular, writing that data centres "highly unpopular in a certain area, have become extremely popular when a financial deal is struck." He also said new large data centres must generate their own electricity and share excess power with the local grid.
Why are data centres a midterm election issue?
The poll was released 12 days before the November 3 midterms, with AI and data centres emerging as hot topics in races including the Ohio governor contest and US Senate seats in Ohio and Michigan. Numerous Republican candidates have distanced themselves from the White House's pro-data-centre stance, and 49% of Americans say they trust neither party to handle AI.
What is the Ratepayer Protection Act?
H.R. 9340, sponsored by Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), would shift data-centre electricity and grid costs off household bills and onto the operators. It passed the House 417–3 on Sept 16 but stalled in the Senate 57–43 on Sept 30, three votes short of breaking the filibuster (SRN News / Daily Caller). Democrats called it too weak to be mandatory, according to Heinrich's office.
Sources: ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll via the Washington Post (syndicated reporting, October 21, 2026); ABC News poll summary; Al Jazeera; News18/Reuters reporting on the Truth Social post; TechPulse USA prior coverage.
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