Trump urged to champion data centers as national-security bulwark against China

In this opinion piece, the writer argues that data centers are a critical component of the United States’ AI infrastructure and, by extension, its military, economic and political security. He calls on President Trump to leverage his platform to warn that restricting data-center growth would jeopardize national security and cede technological leadership to China. To achieve this, he recommends four concrete steps: aggressively implement the July 2025 executive order that encourages siting data centers and supporting energy assets on federal property, including desalination and water-treatment facilities; create a “data-centers czar” to fast-track approvals and navigate state-local resistance; have Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent highlight the sector’s role in boosting military power and driving GDP growth toward the administration’s 3 % target; and frame the challenge as a Cold-War-style competition with China, drawing parallels to past races in nuclear weapons and space. The author concludes that American citizens must decide whether to accept a future shaped by Chinese AI dominance or to embrace data-center expansion as a matter of strategic survival.