President Donald Trump has suggested that China may be helping fuel the growing American backlash against data centers. Asked by Fox News host Laura Ingraham why Americans do not want data centers near their homes, Trump replied: “A lot of people say it’s China” and “a lot of people say that it’s a China PR thing.” Trump did not point to any specific evidence during the exchange. He also warned that communities could lose investment and jobs if they reject data centers, calling them “the oil of the next 50 years.” The claim comes after both X, formerly Twitter, and OpenAI disclosed China-linked online influence activity targeting the U.S. debate over data centers.
But the available evidence draws an important distinction: researchers have found attempts to amplify existing American concerns, while there is considerably less evidence that China created, controls or is principally responsible for the nationwide backlash. Trump's comments come ahead of a planned visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is expected to travel to the United States later this month. Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email outside of regular working hours.
On August 28, X's Global Government Affairs account said its safety team had investigated “suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts” and uncovered a bot farm containing approximately 200,000 accounts. X said 200 accounts within that much larger network were posting in a way that could manipulate the U.S. debate about AI and energy policy—not that all 200,000 were focused on data centers. According to X, those accounts pushed claims that AI data centers were increasing household electricity prices and straining the power grid, while some circulated AI-generated cartoons portraying data center companies as profiting at consumers' expense.
X said it suspends accounts that violate its authenticity rules. That finding followed an investigation published by OpenAI in June. OpenAI said it banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts that likely originated in China and were being used in a covert influence operation it named “Data Center Bandwagon.” The operators generated English language posts and images while posing as Americans, with content focused heavily on electricity demand and household costs associated with AI infrastructure.
OpenAI assessed that the operators were likely associated with a private Chinese technology company working for provincial-level government clients. The company's threat report said the operation was attempting to “exploit and amplify existing public concerns” and that it found “no evidence of meaningful breakout beyond its own activity.” In other words, the evidence showed an attempted influence operation, not evidence that it had successfully generated America's growing anti-data center movement. Republicans in Congress have also been investigating possible foreign involvement.
House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders asked the FBI and presidential science advisers in June to investigate what they called evidence of foreign influence campaigns intended to slow U.S. data center development. On September 10, House Science Committee Republicans asked the National Science Foundation and four progressive environmental and political groups for information about possible foreign funding and influence. Those funding allegations, however, should not automatically be treated as evidence of Chinese control.
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