Trump DOJ Frames AI Data-Center Critics as Foreign Agents Despite No Evidence

The Trump administration has begun treating public opposition to AI and data centers as a foreign-influence operation rather than genuine domestic sentiment. A recent Justice Department notice warned that anyone—citizen or not—who advances the “goals” of a foreign power through “any public activity,” including demonstrations, must register with the government or face prosecution. Trump amplified the message on social media, branding data-center skeptics as traitors and revolutionaries serving a “Bad and Evil Cause” and pinning the backlash on China. The framing has bipartisan and industry backing: Senator Tom Cotton pressed the DOJ to open a FARA investigation into an alleged CCP-funded network, House Republicans sought an FBI briefing, and figures like David Sacks and Kevin O’Leary echoed the claim that Beijing is orchestrating the resistance.

The evidentiary basis is thin to nonexistent. O’Leary, who is backing a $100 billion Utah data center, publicly conceded he had “no evidence” for his claims that China was funding protesters; he and Fox News are now facing two defamation suits over the accusations. The core assumption—that Americans would only oppose data centers if manipulated from abroad—collapses against the polling. A March Gallup survey found 71 percent of Americans oppose a data center in their area, more than oppose a local nuclear plant, with opposition spanning party lines including 63 percent of Republicans.

The concern isn’t technophobia. Pew data shows nearly half of Americans use AI chatbots, yet 40 percent expect AI to harm society over the next two decades, 63 percent think it’s moving too fast, 71 percent worry it will erode their data security, and 67 percent distrust the government to regulate it. The real story is an administration recasting a broad, homegrown policy grievance as a national-security threat—and floating criminal liability against critics in the process, which raises clear speech and dissent concerns.