President Donald Trump’s trade manufacturing adviser, Peter Navarro, said the White House might force data centre builders to absorb their costs, as voters continue to sour on the economy and utility prices soar.
“They need to pay, not only pay for the electricity that they’re using on the grid, but they have to pay for the resiliency that they’re affecting as well,” he told Fox News.
“They need to pay for the water. So there’s activity, action here going forward, where we force them to internalise the cost.”
He didn’t reveal what the White House’s plans to force data centre builders to internalise costs would look like.
Navarro made specific mention of Meta, and in response, a spokesperson said the company already pays for all of its energy usage.
“Meta pays the full costs for energy used by our data centres so they aren’t passed onto consumers — and we go beyond that by paying for new and upgraded local infrastructure as well as adding new power to the grid,” the spokesperson said.
Data centres and their drag on utilities are part of the affordability problem as electricity prices surged 6.9% year-over-year in 2025, with little sign of easing.
Navarro said the White House is “on it” and blamed the soaring costs on former President Joe Biden, who left office over a year ago.
“We understand the ravages that inflation took on you because of Joe Biden’s irresponsibility, but we are addressing that with economic policy that ultimately will make wages rise faster than the inflation rate, and that’s the key to affordability,” he said.
However, Americans are pinning the blame on the Trump administration for rising costs.
As the November 2026 midterms approach, polls consistently find Trump underwater on the economy.
Democrats have taken a 5.2 point lead in the generic ballot ahead of the November midterm elections that could loosen Trump’s grip on Washington, according to polling averages from RealClearPolitics.
Despite this, Trump has said he is “very proud” of the state of the economy.
In an interview with “NBC Nightly News” that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday, the president was asked, “At what point are we in the Trump economy?”
“I’d say we’re there now,” he replied.
The Trump administration has also recently taken steps to address the strain on data centre electricity and rising utility costs.
Several states and the White House signed a pact in January urging the nation’s largest grid operator, PJM Interconnection, to make big technology companies pay for new power plants on the system.
