{"id":25263,"date":"2026-08-07T16:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=880761"},"modified":"2026-08-07T16:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:44:20","slug":"trump-calls-texas-data-center-opposition-a-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2026\/08\/07\/trump-calls-texas-data-center-opposition-a-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Calls Texas\u2019 Data Center Opposition a \u201cMistake\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/img\/social\/opengraph\/ij-social-default-1200x630.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southcentral\/2026\/08\/07\/880761.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southcentral\/2026\/08\/07\/880761.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p>President Donald Trump this week criticized Texas for being anti-data centers, just days after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott paused industry-wide approvals until the companies provide the state with more information on things like power and water use.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw Texas the other day sort of is against data centers,\u201d Trump said in a nearly hourlong sit-down interview with Punchbowl News released Friday. \u201cI think it\u2019s a mistake. And I\u2019m not taking positions, I just think it\u2019s a mistake, because there are other communities that want it. When a community wants it, it means a lot of money is going to come into that community.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>Abbott\u2019s office and campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The moratorium, which Abbott announced Monday, will require state regulatory agencies to audit proposed data centers seeking connection to the state\u2019s electric grid and find out whether they\u2019re receiving tax breaks, how much power and water they will use, what kind of cooling they will use, what efforts they\u2019ve made to reduce community impacts, and who owns the facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Any projects that fail Abbott\u2019s ordered \u201ccomprehensive verification and audit\u201d should be denied connection to the grid, the governor said.<\/p>\n<p>The move was in contrast to the Republican\u2019s typical pro-business stature, underlining how the data center debate has put Texas conservatives between Trump and angry constituents in rural, unincorporated areas where The Texas Tribune has reported most planned data centers are set to be located. Texans have mobilized across the state to oppose the new developments, airing concerns that the facilities will drain local water supplies, drive up electric bills and cause noise, light and air pollution.<\/p>\n<p>Abbott\u2019s announcement came after he had previously been bullish about the industry, calling Texas \u201cepicenter of AI development\u201d in November when he unveiled Google\u2019s $40 billion investment in the state that included data center facility development.<\/p>\n<p>The three-term governor\u2019s Democratic opponent, Gina Hinojosa, has made greater oversight of data centers a key piece of her campaign.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext-2\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"162\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>\u201cAbbott\u2019s call for a \u2018pause\u2019 could be for one day \u2013 and no one buys it,\u201d she said in a statement this week. \u201cHe\u2019s taken millions from data center CEOs while giving Texans lip service to non-existent restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump went on to say that data centers are \u201ctremendously important for the economics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor Texas to say no to data centers is a mistake in the sense that it could be bigger than oil,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: Google and Punchbowl News have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.<\/p>\n<p>This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/location\/texas\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Texas<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"880761\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! 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Greg Abbott paused industry-wide approvals until the companies provide the state with more information on&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2015,1,77],"class_list":["post-25263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-data-centers","tag-news","tag-texas-south-central-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/trump-calls-texas-data-center-opposition-a-mistake.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}