White House says president will outline new proposals, highlight economic record, and announce deal requiring tech firms to shoulder more data center power costs.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump will use his State of the Union address Tuesday evening to announce new policy initiatives and unveil agreements with major technology companies aimed at shielding residential electricity customers from rising energy costs tied to data center expansion, according to the White House.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Feb. 24 that the president’s first State of the Union speech of his second term will include fresh policy announcements.
“He will, of course, lay out a very ambitious agenda, I think, for the working people of this country to make America more affordable and prosperous and safe and make the American dream more attainable,” Leavitt said.
She declined to provide specifics on the forthcoming proposals but said the president will frame the address around economic priorities as midterm elections approach.
“The president will lay out the case for why he and Republicans are better suited to tackle, continue tackling the affordability crisis that was created by the Biden administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill,” Leavitt said.
“So, the President is going to make the case that three more years with him in the White House and with Republicans on Capitol Hill, we can finally achieve the American dream in this country again that we had in his first term, but was lost because of Joe Biden and the Democrats.”
According to the White House, Trump will point to cooling inflation, lower mortgage rates, and record stock market levels as part of his economic message. He is also expected to address Congress’s failure to fund certain components of the federal government.
“He will call on Democrats in Congress to reopen the Department of Homeland Security that they have shut down,” Leavitt said.
The address will incorporate themes tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary, with nationwide events planned ahead of a July 4 celebration marking the semiquincentennial.
“You’re going to hear a speech that is a celebration of 250 years of our nation and on our nation’s independence,” Leavitt said. “You’re going to hear the president share tear-jerking stories of American heroes past and present who really exemplify what it means to be a patriotic American.”
Leavitt told Fox News that invited guests will include members of the military and Americans who benefited from administration policies, including a Pennsylvania waitress whose family is expected to receive more than $5,000 in tax refunds. Another attending family was able to secure fertility treatments at reduced prices after the launch of TrumpRX.gov. First Lady Melania Trump will be joined by two children participating in her Fostering the Future initiative.
In addition to domestic policy proposals, Trump is expected to announce what a White House official described as a “rate payer protection pledge” involving major technology companies that operate energy-intensive data centers.
Under the pledge, large technology firms—often referred to as “hyperscalers”—will agree to pay a greater share of electricity costs associated with powering data centers and other high-demand facilities. The official said the companies will “pay their own way” to prevent their electricity usage from increasing utility bills for residential customers.
“This is one of the many economic announcements President Trump will make tonight,” the official said.
Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has promoted accelerated development of artificial intelligence infrastructure, including the construction of data centers. In July, he signed an executive order designed to streamline federal permitting for data center projects that require at least 100 megawatts of new electricity load dedicated to AI-related functions such as inference, training, simulation, or synthetic data generation.
Projects qualifying under the order must include at least $500 million in committed private capital investment and are encouraged to generate their own “behind-the-meter” electricity, potentially supplying surplus energy to nearby utilities.
The administration has supported co-location strategies pairing new energy generation with data center construction to accelerate AI development while minimizing strain on consumer grids. However, the impact of data center expansion on residential electricity rates remains a subject of debate and is expected to factor into 2026 midterm campaigns.
Electricity costs were prominent issues in the November gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, where energy demand has increased alongside data center growth. According to federal data, New Jersey customers paid an average of 19 percent more for electricity in 2025 compared with 2024. In Virginia, utilities that implemented 30 percent rate increases between 2020 and 2023 have received approval for additional rate increases of up to 21 percent by 2027.
The White House did not identify which companies have agreed to the pledge, though several technology firms have recently announced data center projects designed to limit reliance on residential grids. Meta has agreed to build a facility adjacent to a planned 400-megawatt natural gas plant in Ohio. Google has partnered with Intersect Power on energy park projects combining solar generation and storage. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are investing in Small Modular Reactors to power AI infrastructure, including a planned 12-reactor Cascade Advanced Energy Facility near Richland, Washington, developed by Energy Northwest and Amazon.
Trump is scheduled to begin his address at 9 p.m. ET, with approximately two hours allocated for the speech.
“It’s going to be a long speech, because we have so much to talk about,” the president said Feb. 23 during a White House ceremony honoring Angel families.
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