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Wednesday, October 21, 2026

The File

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AI · Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Trump says new data centers must make their own power

The File desk · Oct. 21, 2026, 6:40 a.m. ET

Partially confirmed1 primary sources

Status

Partially confirmed. The post is the President's, at 1:37 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday. No executive order or rule creating this requirement was found on the White House actions page. Truth Social returned a block on this pass, so the wording is the politics desk's morning read.
  • Confirmed
    Trump posted that new and large data centers are “mandated by me” to make their own electricity and to give or sell any excess to the local community or the grid.
  • Unverified
    No order, rule, or statute doing this was found. The post is not itself a regulation.
President Trump posted at 1:37 a.m. Eastern Wednesday that new, large data centers are “mandated by me” to make their own electricity and to give or sell any extra power to the local community or the grid. No executive order or rule doing that was found on the White House list of presidential actions.1
The post the politics desk read also says that if companies want their data centers to be popular, they should pay the community, or people in it, a “dividend.” The newest items on the presidential-actions page, as that desk checked it, were an order on women's health from Oct. 19 and earlier actions. None of those was an electricity mandate for data centers. This story does not call the post a regulation.1
Why it matters (Estimate). Estimate. New data centers use enough electricity to show up on a household bill. A real requirement that they generate their own power would change who pays for the grid. A binding order was not found.1 What exists tonight is the President's post.
The public page returned a block when this edition tried to re-open it. The sentences are the morning read. The post, as read, includes a typo and a clause about electric prices that does not say what the desk can safely paraphrase, so that clause is left out.
How we know

Notes

  1. 1.Truth Social post, created Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, at 1:37 a.m. Eastern. https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/117477279556215047 This pass received HTTP 403. The politics desk read the public account API. “New and large, in some cases gigantic, Data Centers are mandated by me to make their own electricity, and give or sell any excess back to the local community, or grid.” “If companies want to make their Data Centers popular, pay the community, and/or individuals within the community, a 'dividend.'” The presidential-actions page, as checked by the politics desk, had no newer order creating this requirement. Newest items noted there included the women's health order of Oct. 19. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/

What is still unknown or disputed

  • No order or rule creating the requirement was found.
  • The post does not say how a company would prove it is generating the power.
  • This pass could not re-open the post.

Primary sources

Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.

  1. Source 1 · fetch incomplete

    Post on data-center electricity

    Donald J. Trump, Truth Social · October 21, 2026

    New and large, in some cases gigantic, Data Centers are mandated by me to make their own electricity, and give or sell any excess back to the local community, or grid.

    https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/117477279556215047

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