President Trump posted on Truth Social this week that artificial intelligence and the data centers that power it “will be the Greatest Economic Development Engine in History — Bigger than Oil, Gold, Diamonds, or even the Internet.”
Many of the commenters on his A.I. posts disagreed.
In hundreds of replies to Mr. Trump’s Truth Social posts this week, commenters criticized his enthusiasm, offering a social media snapshot that mirrors recent polling, which shows that Republicans are increasingly concerned about the technology.The New York Times analyzed thousands of comments on Mr. Trump’s posts to create a snapshot of what his most loyal supporters are thinking about his pro-A.I. stance.
Truth Social, which Mr. Trump created in 2022, has a user base that is relatively small compared with other social networks, with about 6 million users. But it remains a vital social space for Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters, who typically create an enthusiastic echo chamber for the president’s ideas and rarely register opposition in big numbers.
Overall, the number of comments disparaging A.I. and data centers outnumbered those supporting the technology by nearly four to one, the analysis showed. Many of the comments criticizing the president came from users whose profiles suggested they were otherwise staunch Trump supporters and members of his MAGA movement. Hundreds of other comments included only images or memes, which were not analyzed, or did not directly address data centers or A.I.
The Times used an A.I. tool to help classify the sentiment of the posts and each user’s profile.
Some of the pushback on Truth Social has focused on the intrusion that data centers impose on rural areas, where more Republicans tend to live than Democrats. Data centers are massive installations that are increasingly being built in rural areas, particularly in the South. A few users suggested Mr. Trump build a data center at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, to get a better taste of the disruption. One commenter criticized data centers and A.I. as tools of mass surveillance.
The explosive pushback is the latest sign that A.I. and data centers have become a thorny issue for Republicans this midterm season — a rare topic in the campaign that has united the majority of Americans in common concern.
A poll published on Tuesday by The New York Times and Siena University found that a majority of likely voters oppose building data centers, but that Republicans, while divided on the issue, were still more open to them than Democrats or independents. The poll found that 49 percent of Republicans supported such construction while 47 percent opposed it. Three quarters of Democrats and 60 percent of independents opposed them.
Polling from Pew Research Center last November also showed that concern over A.I. more generally has grown since 2021, rising to half of all Republicans in 2025, up from 45 percent in 2021.
“It really doesn’t play well to his base because a lot of those folks are probably worried about A.I. taking their jobs,” said Raymond La Raja, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who has also conducted polling on the issue.
Mr. La Raja added that even if Mr. Trump’s base agreed with the president’s stance on A.I., that support may quickly erode. “If things start to unravel with A.I. and we start seeing major social disruptions, you’re going to see him do a quick reversal,” he said.
The growing concern over data centers has prompted some politicians, including many Republicans, to push back on their development in tight midterm races.
The issue has become a top concern in Pennsylvania’s governor race, where Josh Shapiro, the Democratic incumbent, and Stacy Garrity, his Republican challenger, have battled over who opposes data centers more. Mr. Shapiro signed an executive order seeking stricter guardrails for their development, while Ms. Garrity has vowed to pause such developments if elected.
A fresh wave of concern burst into public view last week when a researcher at Anthropic, an A.I. company, quit over fears that the technology was advancing at a dangerous pace.
Mr. Trump responded on Monday, posting on Truth Social that guardrails were not needed for A.I. because the United States was led by a “STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.” By midday, he posted that A.I. was “the Golden Goose” and should not be killed. Then, in the early afternoon, he posted that fears about A.I. “taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad” were nothing more than “a HOAX” — similar, he said, to two impeachment efforts against him and the federal investigation into his campaign’s interactions with Russia in 2016.
His comments drew immediate pushback.
Even some supporters who saw the logic of Mr. Trump’s support feared what would happen after he left office, giving other leaders control over A.I.’s future.
The pushback resembles what happened after Mr. Trump started a war with Iran this year and then posted about it online. Many users stormed the replies, disparaging his actions and expressing remorse about having once supported him as “the peace president.”
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