Donald Trump’s AI push fuels revolt in Maga heartlands
February 18, 2026
On a cold Tuesday evening last week, about 200 Missourians crammed into a Methodist church to share a message: the AI revolution embraced by Donald Trump’s White House did not have their unqualified support. “I voted for this administration and didn’t really think about [AI] until it started to affect me,” said Lisa Garrett, who lives beside the site of a rapidly greenlit $6.6bn, 400-acre data centre development in the satellite city of Independence, just east of Kansas City.
“I voted for this administration and didn’t really think about [AI] until it started to affect me,” said Lisa Garrett, who lives beside the site of a rapidly greenlit $6.6bn, 400-acre data centre development in the satellite city of Independence, just east of Kansas City.
