US President Donald Trump on Saturday defended the rapid expansion of massive data centres in the US, warning that blocking the projects would give China an advantage as he campaigned in Ohio ahead of next month’s midterm elections.According to the New York Post, Trump promoted his administration’s efforts on data centres during a rally outside Dayton, saying the projects could bring significant economic benefits to Ohio and other communities.“There’s so much money to be made for Ohio. You can’t just turn them off. They’ll go to China,” Trump told supporters, while urging voters to back Republican Sen Jon Husted and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.Trump also asked supporters to treat the November 3 midterm elections as though he himself were on the ballot.“Please pretend that I’m on the ballot, and you need to turn out for a midterm victory,” he said.The president said his administration was taking “historic action” to ensure that technology companies operating data centres contribute to the communities around them.Trump linked the rapid expansion of data centres to the global competition over artificial intelligence, saying the US was ahead of China in what he called “superintelligence”.“We’re beating China,” Trump said, arguing that the US should not turn away data centre projects as the two countries compete in AI and other technologies.At the same time, Trump backed legislation promoted by Husted that aims to prevent data centres from increasing electricity costs for other consumers and require the facilities to cover the costs associated with their power use.Trump said nearly every Senate Democrat had voted days earlier to block the measure.He vowed to sign the Ratepayer Protection Act into law “immediately within 24 hours” if Republicans retained control.The growing number of data centre projects has sparked opposition in communities across the US, with residents and officials raising concerns over the huge amounts of electricity, water and land required by the facilities.A major issue has been who should pay for infrastructure needed to support the projects. Utilities may have to build new power plants, substations and transmission lines to handle the additional demand, prompting concerns that some of those costs could eventually be passed on to households and other businesses.Communities have also raised concerns over water consumption, noise and the large land footprints of data centres. Critics have questioned tax incentives offered to facilities that can cost billions of dollars to build while requiring relatively few permanent workers.The political pressure has led some states to reconsider tax breaks and permitting policies that were introduced to attract data centre investments. Other states have explored special electricity rates and requirements aimed at making developers pay more of the costs associated with their projects.Trump’s Ohio appearance came after stops in Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama as part of what he has described as a 32-day campaign tour ahead of the midterm elections.