US President Donald Trump has suggested data center developers pay local residents direct dividends in order to overcome opposition to new projects.

In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said: “If companies want to make their data centers popular, pay the community, and/or individuals within the community, a 'dividend.'”

Trump continued: “I have watched the process closely, and data centers that were highly unpopular in a certain area have become extremely popular when a financial deal is struck.”

The president concluded that companies should “MAKE DEALS, and get them built!”

Many data center developers and operators have long made proffers to local communities when looking to build new data centers. Sometimes totaling millions of dollars, these proffers can include donations to local charities and institutions, as well as funding infrastructure, environmental, and social projects.

Offering hard cash to local residents, however, is a relatively new concept, spurred by widespread growing opposition to data center developments.

In Pennsylvania, real estate firm NorthPoint Development reportedly recently offered residents in Hazle Township $10,000 each as part of a campaign to secure permission for its Project Hazlenut data center campus that is seemingly set to be leased to Amazon. Some local residents called the offer a bribe.

In Kansas, Digital Realty also recently offered every household in De Soto, where it plans to build a data center, $1,000 in utility and property tax credits for ten years. Digital is planning to develop a 600MW campus across 1,440 acres outside Kansas City.

President Trump’s Truth Social post cited how many data center operators and developers now cover their own costs when it comes to grid infrastructure, ensuring that residential payers are less likely to see their bills go up when utilities look to cover costs.

Trump said he had “mandated” this, although his Rate Payer Protection Pledge is not a regulatory requirement. Several states and utilities have introduced more localized requirements for large-load users and/or data centers to pay for their own generation and transmission upgrades, but a national Ratepayer Protection Act failed to pass the US Senate in October.

President Trump did not mention any future plans around potentially mandating that data center developers pay dividends to local communities.

In a report published in September, Washington D.C.-based think tank the Bitcoin Policy Institute proposed data center operators give local residents a yearly dividend to shore up support for new projects.

“A data center dividend is a payment or credit made every year to every household in a county that hosts a data center,” the report suggests. “The payment or credit would be funded by a fixed share of the property tax revenue the county already collects from that data center while still leaving ample funds to finance schools, police departments, and public works projects. Because that revenue is already being collected under rates already on the books, a dividend would require no new tax and would add no cost for the company that builds the facility.”

The report suggests the dividend could be paid as a check or direct deposit to households, or as a credit county citizens receive against a property tax or a utility bill. The report also suggests local officials could use the money to create endowment funds that invest the cash and pay locals their own dividends.