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UPDATE: On Monday morning, Popular Information broke the news that there was no evidence that newly-appointed White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia, who claimed for years that she was a lawyer, was actually a lawyer. A few hours later, President Trump and Zacharia were confronted with Popular Information’s reporting on the South Lawn. Zacharia’s bumbling response turned the issue into a national story.
On Tuesday, a non-partisan watchdog organization filed a complaint against Zacharia with the State Bar of California for “the Unauthorized Practice of Law and for Holding Herself Out as Entitled to Practice Law.” The complaint, which cites Popular Information’s reporting 14 times, calls for the state bar to conduct a “thorough investigation” and “take all appropriate action, including referral to the Ventura County District Attorney.”
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Trump praises data centers — while his super PAC trashes them
While Trump relentless promotes data centers, his super PAC is attacking Democrats for allegedly supporting data centers.
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For months, President Trump has publicly celebrated data centers. “The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in August. “If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.”
Trump has called data centers “fabulous” and “absolutely beautiful.” Trump has also claimed that data centers make “a fortune” for the surrounding communities, calling them “tremendous WINS for the States and Communities that are lucky enough to get them.” In August, Trump argued that “data centers could be bigger than oil.”
In September, Trump claimed that “communities that were dying” before having data centers are now “wealthy.” In a July post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “One of the biggest Driving Forces in the Future for Jobs, are Data Centers,” arguing that “[t]hey are big, strong, bold, and Money Machines for the State in which they are built.”
Trump has also claimed that data centers make communities safer. “Look, the data centers make a lot of money,” Trump said in a September interview with TIME. “If you want to be poor, you want to have no money, if you don’t want to have a job, and if you want to live in a crime-infested area, squalor, all the things that go along with it, you should not have a data center.” In the same interview, Trump said, “It doesn’t mean I want them right next to my house, but certainly I like them in my county.”
But while Trump is publicly championing data centers, his super PAC, which he has made clear that he controls, is paying for advertisements attacking Democratic candidates for allegedly supporting data centers.
Popular Information obtained a mailer from No Going Back PAC, an alter ego of Trump’s super PAC MAGA Inc., attacking Jamie Ager, the Democratic candidate for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. The mailer attacks Ager for being “open to large AI data centers” and “putting… AI data centers ahead of North Carolinians.”
The mailer was submitted by a North Carolina resident through Popular Information’s new web app, Paid For By.
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So, why is Trump’s super PAC attacking Democrats for something he has publicly supported?
The reality is, despite Trump’s support, data centers are deeply unpopular. A Gallup poll conducted in March found that over 70% of Americans “oppose constructing data centers for artificial intelligence in their local area.”
Trump’s contradictory attack mailer is also inaccurate
Aside from being hypocritical, the mailer’s claims about Ager are unsupported.
As evidence for the claim Ager “is open to large AI data centers,” the mailer cites an April article by a news outlet called Mountain Xpress. But that article, in which Ager was asked about his stances on various environmental issues, does not show that he is “open” to data centers.
In the article, Mountain Xpress asked Ager his stance on data center development in relation to a moratorium enacted by the town of Canton, which is in the district he is running to represent. “Data centers need to work for us, not the other way around. If we’re going to let a data center be built in Western North Carolina, it needs to bring good local jobs; it cannot poison our water or our air, and it cannot drive up electric bills for families and small businesses,” Ager responded. “Canton asked the right questions. Every community deserves that ability to set the terms if they want a data center at all.”
Elsewhere, Ager has supported a moratorium on new data centers. In August, Ager said, “I’m really skeptical that centers are a good fit for Western North Carolina… We need to be very careful, and I support a short term moratorium to make sure we study the issue before we make any long term commitments.”
Most recently, Ager wrote in an October 8 Facebook post, “Western North Carolina’s natural beauty is irreplaceable. Data centers strain water resources, raise utility bills, and cause noise pollution. I support a 1-year moratorium on new data centers because these facilities are not good neighbors.”
The mailer also makes unsupported claims about