TEX HEX

Longtime Republican Voter Calls BS on Trump

Retiree Tom Weeks, 66, is among a growing number of Texans turning on Trump.

A longtime Donald Trump voter has had enough of the president’s “bulls--t,” calling him out live on CNN.

Lifelong Texas Republican Tom Weeks, 66, has pledged to vote for Democrats in the midterms over data center concerns. Many Republicans in the state are angry at Gov. Greg Abbott’s refusal to block construction of the massive facilities, giving his Democratic challenger, Gina Hinojosa, hope for an upset.

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A UT/TPPP poll found that 57 percent of Texas voters either strongly or somewhat oppose construction of the centers in their community.

Among those is Weeks, who reacted angrily to President Trump pushing back against voters’ concerns. “The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday, appearing to undermine the concerns of everyday Americans.

He didn’t stop there. “If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign. The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them. If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame. China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement. Actually, they can’t believe it is happening!” he ranted.

Weeks, who met with Hinajosa last month to discuss his concerns, called Trump’s response “bulls--t.”

“I think it is bulls--t rhetoric and is insulting as hell. It is insulting our intelligence because they don’t want to hear this noise on their property. Let them build one at Mar-a-Lago,” Weeks, who lives in the North Texas suburb of Granbury, told Laura Coates Live on CNN on Monday.

“People who think we are backwards morons are not the ones living with it. I think he has made some moronic statements.”

A growing voter backlash over data centers that strain local resources—and the AI technology they power, which threatens to put Americans out of work—is becoming an increasingly serious liability for Republicans.

Abbot responded to the political backlash by halting approvals of some 1,800 new data centers worth billions of dollars, citing concerns that they use too much power and water.

“My party has failed,” Weeks, who worked in the paper supply business, told the Washington Post last week.

He’s been fighting against the construction of data centers and a bitcoin mine, rattled by the round-the-clock noise they bring.

“Nothing has been done by our party to help,” he added. “Any Republican who has been in office since we started this fight, I’m not going to vote for them.”

“We’re going to vote for whoever we think understands our plight and she does,” he said of Hinojosa, Abbott’s challenger. He’s not the only one.

Rena Schroeder, who unsuccessfully ran as a Republican for a state Senate seat last March, attended a Talarico campaign event featuring Hinojosa last month. Schroeder, who now identifies as an independent, said she plans to vote Democratic. She also helped launch a group called “Break Rank,” which she said has attracted around 100 voters. Weeks is also involved.

“We’re calling it ‘breaking rank’ because of the level of corruption” in the Republican Party, she said. “We the people are breaking rank.”

Glenda Berg, another lifelong Republican, also plans to vote for Talarico and Hinojosa. Berg, 84, a retired bookkeeper who lives near Temple in Belton, said she voted for Abbott and Trump three times but has since been “appalled” by the president’s actions, which she said run “against what democracy is based on.”

It comes amid a mounting approval problem for Trump. CNN reported his overall approval rating has fallen to 34 percent, matching a career low reached after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2021. Half of Americans now strongly disapprove of him, a record high across his two terms, while just 15 percent strongly approve, also a record. Only 31 percent have a positive view of the Republican Party under his leadership, according to the CNN poll conducted by SSRS from July 23 to 27.

Reuters separately reported that Trump’s political brand is increasingly a liability for Republicans defending slim congressional majorities in the November 3 midterms. A Reuters/Ipsos survey of 924 registered voters, conducted Aug. 28-31, found his approval at 33 percent, with Democrats appearing more energized heading into the midterms.

A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll found Trump’s approval had fallen to a new low, with 32 percent of 1,000 respondents approving of his job performance and 64 percent disapproving, including 54 percent who strongly disapproved. The Aug. 21-26 survey marked a 1-point drop from March. It also found 68 percent said Trump was not handling the war with Iran well, compared with 25 percent who said he was handling it somewhat or very well. The margin of error was 3.5 percentage points.

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