President Donald Trump is aligning himself closely with the artificial intelligence industry at a moment when a broad and growing coalition of Americans is moving in the opposite direction, according to an analysis by CNBC.
The coalition forming against unrestricted AI expansion includes religious leaders, labor unions, and local activists. Together they represent voter groups that Trump has worked to court, and their concerns center on job losses, rising electricity bills, and the concentration of wealth in a small number of technology companies.
Trump addressed some of those concerns directly Thursday at an event at the Environmental Protection Agency, where data center developers and utilities pledged not to raise electricity prices. The pledge responded to fears that a surge in data center construction could spike Americans' energy bills. But even at an event designed to show the administration looking out for ordinary people, Trump encouraged assembled governors and local officials to embrace data center development in their communities.
"You can't fight it. You have to go with it," he said. He told the audience that someone was going to get rich from data center development, and it might as well be them. "If you don't take all that money, somebody else is going to take it. You might as well do it yourself."
The message reflects a bet that Americans will get behind AI if they believe there is money in it for them. That calculation has worked with other financial products. Crypto and prediction markets have maintained strong followings even though most individual participants do not get rich. But AI is not landing the same way. Rank and file Americans are not buying the idea that major technology companies are handing them a golden lottery ticket, even as the Nasdaq composite has recorded 20 closing highs this year.
SpaceX's IPO is one concrete example of the disconnect. Early investors profited. But for ordinary investors who bought shares during the IPO last month, shares are down 30%.
Pope Leo XIV adds another dimension to the opposition. The pope issued an encyclical in May warning that AI needed guardrails to protect human dignity. That intervention carries weight with Catholic voters, a group Trump has actively pursued. The administration has not publicly responded to the encyclical.
The political risk extends beyond any single election. CNBC's analysis found that Trump's support for the AI industry sits in what it described as his blind political spot, a place where the industry and its rapid development could outpace his ability to read and respond to shifting public sentiment. His party faces midterm elections, and the combination of job anxiety, energy cost fears, and religious concern about AI could become a liability if the administration continues to present itself as a champion of the technology companies driving the change.
