REPORT: Manufactured Outrage: How National Environmental Activists Are Spending Millions to Elect Democrats, Block Data Centers, and Undermine President Trump’s Pro-Growth Agenda
The same environmental groups that spent over $150 million electing Democrats in 2024 are now running the national campaign to block data center construction across America, and they’re doing it in your community while pretending to be your neighbors.
President Trump has made data center expansion a national priority through the Stargate Project and executive orders accelerating federal permitting.
It’s this compute infrastructure that trains AI models, processes intelligence data, and powers the next generation of American economic and military advantage has to be built somewhere. Every project blocked here is a project Beijing builds unimpeded.
Yet, these projects are being blocked at an astonishing pace because leftists groups have organized and funded their opposition. They had their day in court, when they ran President Biden’s environmental policy, and were resoundingly defeated at the ballot box. Now, they operate underground and use astroturfing tactics to hijack local skepticism and run nationwide, billionaire-funded interference that only benefits China.
This paper documents how national environmental organizations and their financial backers launder ideological opposition by channeling it through newly formed local nonprofits, creating the false appearance of grassroots resistance while advancing a broader anti-growth, anti-Trump agenda.
May 2, 2026