MAHA activists urge Trump against promoting coal to power energy-hungry
AI data centers
[August 22, 2026]
By ALI SWENSON
NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly 200 activists in Health Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr.'s “Make America Healthy Again” movement are criticizing
President Donald Trump's promotion of coal to fuel the rise of
artificial intelligence data centers, according to a letter sent Friday.
The letter, signed by at least two former staffers from Kennedy's 2024
presidential campaign, marks the first major MAHA movement mobilization
over fossil fuels and the latest in a series of rifts between the
diverse group of activists and the Trump administration over
environmental policy.
The letter to Trump, Kennedy and various other Cabinet officials, first
obtained by The Associated Press, laments a 2025 executive order that
aimed to boost coal to power data centers over pollution concerns and
asks the administration to consider renewable options, including solar
and geothermal energy.
“We understand the importance of American leadership in artificial
intelligence, national security, innovation, and economic growth,” the
letter reads. “But American AI leadership should not come at the cost of
a more toxic burden for American children.”
In response, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers noted that
greenhouse gas emissions dropped to a 30-year low during Trump's first
term and said Trump “was given a mandate to roll back the radical
climate policies that are burning a hole through taxpayers' wallets.”
The agencies receiving the letter didn’t immediately respond to requests
for comment.
Prominent MAHA figures behind the letter include Zen Honeycutt, a former
Kennedy campaign staffer and founder of the advocacy group Moms Across
America, and Charles Eisenstein, a former speechwriter on Kennedy's
campaign. Honeycutt said she asked the Kennedy-aligned political action
committee MAHA Action to sign onto the letter but did not receive a
reply.
Although it may not reflect the views of all MAHA activists, the new
line of criticism against one of the administration’s signature policies
less than three months before November’s midterm elections could present
another challenge for Republicans as they seek to win over the voting
bloc in key races.
As health secretary, Kennedy has carried out several policy changes that
cater to the MAHA movement, including attempting to scale back childhood
vaccine recommendations, a central priority for some activists. He also
has sought to remove artificial dyes from food and encouraged Americans
to have healthy diets free of ultraprocessed foods.
But many in the MAHA movement, which Trump credits with helping him win
back the White House two years ago, say they have grown frustrated with
the administration over its embrace of pesticides such as glyphosate and
its deregulatory environmental agenda. Some have said they plan to vote
on issues over party this fall, raising the political stakes of their
increasingly public tensions with the Republican administration.
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The Dave Johnson coal-fired power plant is silhouetted against
the morning sun in Glenrock, Wyo., July 27, 2018 (AP Photo/J. David
Ake, File)
 As president, Trump has
enthusiastically embraced what he calls “big, beautiful coal”
despite outcry from environmentalists about planet-warming
greenhouse gases and toxic chemicals released by coal-fired power
plants.
His administration has moved to reverse tighter Biden-era standards
on greenhouse gas emissions, which, in addition to their climate
impacts, can harm brain development in children and increase rates
of heart attacks in adults.
He also has been a vocal advocate for data centers, which power
artificial intelligence and cloud computing, framing them as a
necessary component of winning the AI race against China.
“If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had
a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a data center,” Trump
said this week, “I would absolutely want it because the jobs are
enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous.”
Data centers have become a political flashpoint in this year's
elections. Voters across the political spectrum have criticized them
for jacking up electricity bills, draining water supplies, and
creating unhealthy amounts of air and noise pollution.
Friday's letter asks the administration to require transparent
review of data center location and power sourcing decisions, and
respect existing environmental review requirements in the permitting
process.
Honeycutt said that after Trump's executive order last year, she
researched the impact of coal ash on communities and was disturbed
by what she found. She said she was also concerned about other
aspects of data centers, including their land use and their effects
on the people living near them.
“The data center push has been an overwhelmingly negative impact on
our communities, and there are many in the MAHA movement that are
extremely disappointed about that,” she said. “We vote for those who
put health and safety first.”
____
Associated Press writer Michael Phillis in Washington contributed to
this report.
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