As concerns about rapid artificial intelligence-scale data center development grow in communities across the nation, the industry is upping its public relations efforts. And it received a big boost from America's PR-man-in-chief this week.

"If I were a mayor of a small 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," President Donald Trump told a gathering of cryptocurrency and technology moguls Wednesday at the White House. "The jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are enormous. And if you don't take it, you're going to be left behind because there are plenty of places that want it."

He then wrote off citizen concerns by wondering if they hadn't fallen for a propaganda campaign. "Maybe it [the industry] could use a little public relations help," he said, revealing much in his trademark off-the-cuff messaging.

I'm not convinced it's a winning message for a gaggle of gilded data center billionaires to receive a rousing shoutout from a fellow crypto billionaire. Mentioning theoretical benefits to small-town America, however, does say something about how out of touch the industry's promoters are as they feel increasing heat from the public. 

Data center development may be wildly popular with the wealthy and investor class, but polls show it's a losing issue with Democrats and Republicans alike. Among common citizen concerns: water and power usage; water, noise and air pollution, and what many consider the false promise of long-term job creation.

Those concerns echo in small and large communities across the country, some of which are enacting development moratoriums as elected officials — many of whom have been only too happy to accept industry contributions — begin acknowledging that the concerns of taxpaying voters go beyond what some have written off as unwarranted fears about new technology.

Behind the makeup and marketing of the made-for-media moments at the White House, Axios cites a leaked memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee warning its allies in Silicon Valley that the enormously unpopular rush to develop data centers is putting GOP candidates in jeopardy at a time when their president's popularity is polling at record lows. The memo was focused on the senate race in Ohio, but concludes, "If voters' perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio."

It's hardly a surprise to anyone who has been speaking with members of communities that already have data centers nearby or are being courted for hyperscale AI complexes. It's not just fear. It's palpable anger over growing evidence of strain on water and power utilities and damage to the environment.

And then there's Nevada, which doesn't need a high-priced propaganda machine to communicate that all is well on the data center front. The industry has Gov. Joe Lombardo as its de facto messenger as well as a history of the unabashed embrace of the industry by both sides of the aisle at the state Legislature.

But a lot has happened in the decade since the centers received not only the big political thumbs up, but tax abatement incentives that any industry would find impossible to resist.

In fairness, a number of elected officials in the state have expressed strong concerns about the rush to develop — and some even did so before reading the latest polls on the subject. Former supportive legislators such as Teresa Benitez-Thompson, theDemocratic Party candidate for the 2nd Congressional District seat, for months has called for a rollback of the tax abatements. Not everyone is reading the room.

After Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) wrote a strong letter in support of Boulder City constituents' efforts to halt a data center project in and just outside the town and proposed cutting the abatements, she then implored Lombardo to act.

He did, sort of. He supported the current law.

Not on the same page as a majority of Nevadans, Lombardo added a page or two of his own to the increasingly heated conversation. I'm not sure how well it went over.

He wrote in part, "The Renewable Tax Abatement (RETA) is clearly defined under NRS 701A, and as the name would suggest, has applicability limited to renewable energy projects meeting certain statutory criteria. Since the RETA in question, which was approved in 2024 by the Governor's Office of Energy, is for a solar generation and storage project on land leased from Boulder City it would not be transferable to a data center regardless of its location on federal land or land leased from Boulder City."

To no surprise, Titus counterpunched: "Unfortunately, the Governor did not address my question of whether he would halt tax abatements for data center projects on federal land until the Nevada Legislature can consider the issue," Titus said. "He doesn't commit to halting abatements. Those abatements would set a precedent for future developments on public land. This is the first and more are planned across the West."

Although Lombardo's Democratic Party gubernatorial challenger Aaron Ford recently called to pause data center tax breaks, his measured response to a movement that transcends party lines makes him look like he's playing catch up. Other candidates and incumbents surely feel his pain.

Here's some free advice that might be overpriced: The days of waiting for the public to cool down on this issue are over. 

If you won't step up for concerned voters from both parties on this one, maybe they shouldn't step up for you come Election Day.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family's Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Reader's Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.