Trump ‘Mandates’ data centers at 1:37am. In March it was a pledge.

Nothing good gets posted at 1:37 in the morning. Ask anyone’s ex. Or the President of the United States.

Overnight, Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he’s been “watching Data Centers very closely” and has reached “a very strong conclusion.” New data centers, the “gigantic” ones included, “are mandated by me to make their own electricity.” The result, in his own words: “therefore there is electric price increase.” Then the next sentence: “In fact, there could be a substantial decrease.” Pick one, sir. It’s 1:37.

Mandated by him? In March the White House brought in seven tech giants, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI, to sign what its own fact sheet calls the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge.” A pledge. Companies agreed to build, bring or buy their own power. The BBC asked energy analysts at the time how anyone would enforce it. Nobody had a great answer.

The other thing he said in March: tech companies “need some PR help.” Seven months later, his PR plan is to have them hand the neighbours cash. “Pay the community, and/or individuals within the community, a ‘dividend.’” Data centers that were unpopular, he says, became “extremely popular when a financial deal is struck.” That’s not energy policy. That’s a bribe with a dividend sticker on it.

And the receipt nobody at 1:37 brought up: on the campaign trail he promised to cut energy bills in half in his first year. According to the government’s own energy statisticians, residential electricity prices rose 6% in 2025.