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The letter turns data-center power into a fresh test of whether the administration can keep a health-focused political coalition aligned with its AI and energy agenda.
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A nearly 200-person coalition tied to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA movement is challenging the Trump administration’s 2025 order encouraging coal for AI data-center power. The signers want solar and geothermal considered, disclosure of facilities’ locations and energy sources, and continued environmental reviews.
Zen Honeycutt and Charles Eisenstein, both former Kennedy campaign figures, helped organize the letter.
The activists cite coal ash, pollution, land use, and nearby communities’ health as risks of coal-powered AI expansion.
Trump frames data centers as strategic infrastructure in the U.S.-China AI competition, alongside jobs and tax revenue.
Nearly 200 activists aligned with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement have challenged President Donald Trump’s promotion of coal for AI data centers, pressing the administration to change how it weighs the power behind its AI expansion. Their letter targets a 2025 executive order intended to boost coal use for data centers.
The signers sent the letter to Trump, Health Secretary Kennedy and other Cabinet officials. It is a notable break inside a movement associated with Kennedy, whose members have already expressed frustration with the administration’s environmental direction. The signers do not purport to speak for the entire MAHA movement, but the coalition includes figures with direct ties to Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign.
The immediate catalyst is the administration’s coal policy for the facilities that run AI and cloud-computing workloads. Trump has promoted coal while describing data centers as part of U.S. competition with China in artificial intelligence. The activists argue that pursuing that goal through coal would add pollution risks for nearby communities.
Zen Honeycutt, a former Kennedy campaign staffer and founder of Moms Across America, and Charles Eisenstein, a former Kennedy campaign speechwriter, were identified as prominent figures behind the effort. Honeycutt said her concern grew after she examined the effects of coal ash on communities following Trump’s order; she also raised concerns about data centers’ land use and effects on people living nearby.
But American AI leadership should not come at the cost of a more toxic burden for American children.
Letter from MAHA-aligned activists to Trump administration officials
The disagreement joins broader tensions between parts of the MAHA coalition and the Trump administration over environmental policy. That matters politically because the letter arrives less than three months before November’s midterm elections, when Republicans will be seeking support from a bloc Trump has credited with helping him return to the White House. Some MAHA activists have said they may vote based on issues rather than party affiliation.
The conflict also lands as data centers become a local political flashpoint. Critics across the political spectrum have raised concerns over electricity bills, water use, and air and noise pollution. Trump, by contrast, has emphasized the potential jobs, tax revenue and strategic value of hosting large AI facilities.
The administration had not immediately responded to requests for comment from the White House or the agencies that received the letter. The next concrete test is whether those officials answer the coalition’s requests—or continue advancing coal as part of the power strategy for AI data centers.
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