Fetterman's comments come as Trump describes those opposed to expanding data centers as “backwards.”
Page A2From§Eachthe noon edition — 1 September 2026
Fetterman backs Trump's mockery of data center opponents; Ocasio-Cortez says build one at Mar-a-Lago.
As it ran on the front
I had this written down somewhere, hold on. Here — Senator Fetterman, backing the President's comments about people who oppose data centers going up in their towns. And right below it, on the same page, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, same week, saying, go ahead, put a data center up in Mar-a-Lago.
Now, I keep coming back to the one word here, and it's not 'data,' it's 'insulting' — that's how the record describes the comments Senator Fetterman is backing. Insulting. Toward opponents. I wrote it down twice because I wanted to make sure I had it right, and I did.…
…(cont) Here's a little thing I do at home, and bear with me. I've got two folders on my desk, one labeled 'places' and one labeled 'people.' When somebody tells me a facility's fine anywhere, I put the note in 'places.' When somebody tells me a facility's fine anywhere except one specific address, I put the note in 'people,' because now we're not talking about zoning anymore, we're talking about who. The Congresswoman's note goes in 'people.' She named a specific address. Mar-a-Lago. That's a place with an owner.
So I go back to the Senator's folder, and there's nothing in it but 'places' — general, unnamed, anywhere-but-here, which is the same shape of argument the opponents he's backing away from are making, except in reverse. He's for it everywhere. She's for it everywhere too, apparently, including one specific everywhere that has a name on the deed.
I don't know what to do with that, I really don't, it's just an odd thing to have on the same page. One folder's got an argument about places, the other one's got an argument about a place.
Oh — one more thing, before you go. The Congresswoman's data center, the one she's proposing — is that one going up near a backyard, or is it going up near a resort?
“Funny how fast a member of the party of the little guy finds common cause with mocking the little guy, right up until somebody points the data center at Mar-a-Lago instead of somebody's backyard. That's the whole argument in one exchange — fine until it's near the compound. Watch where the objection actually lives.”
The receipts
Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) quipped Monday that a company should build an AI data center near President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after he said communities will be “backwards and poor” if they oppose the construction of such facilities.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.