Donald Trump's State Of The Union 2026: Big Tech To Reportedly Pay Higher Bills In New Energy Pledge

Donald Trump will deliver his first official State of the Union of his second term in the US Capitol in Washington on Tuesday night at 9pm ET, with the White House signalling he will use the speech to sell an economic agenda and unveil a pledge aimed at stopping data centres from pushing up local electricity bills.​

The timing is awkward in a way Trump cannot tweet away. Polling has been sliding, affordability has become Democrats' sharpest weapon, and the president is walking into the House chamber days after the Supreme Court knocked out tariffs that had sat under much of his economic message.​

Donald Trump Walks Into A Rougher Political Weather System

CNBC reported Trump is eager to show results on his economic promises as his approval ratings wane ahead of midterms that are less than nine months away. That matters because those elections could change the balance of power in Washington, and Trump governs differently when he feels boxed in.​

The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNBC the president will lay out 'an ambitious agenda to continue bringing the American Dream back for working people'. It is a familiar Trump move, take a broad, warm phrase, wrap it around sharper policies, and dare opponents to look like they are voting against the dream itself.​

Yet even allies concede the mood is edgy. Vice President JD Vance said on Fox News that viewers would hear 'a great deal about the necessity of bringing jobs back,' and that Trump would also address 'regulatory changes' and 'the importance of reducing energy costs for American citizens.'

Polls underline that risk. In a CNN and SSRS poll cited by CNBC, 57 percent of respondents said they most wanted Trump to discuss the economy, while 13 percent picked immigration. That gap is the story, people are not begging for slogans, they are begging for relief.​

And relief is exactly what Democrats claim Trump is not delivering. CNBC reported Democrats are hammering Trump and incumbent Republicans on affordability, and that the tactic worked in off year elections in 2025 after the GOP used it to its advantage in 2024. Politics is not subtle, it is a tug of war over who gets to define 'normal', and right now 'normal' is still too expensive.​

Donald Trump And The Big Tech Energy Pledge That Could Set A Precedent

The White House has telegraphed one headline grabbing offer. A White House official confirmed to CNBC that Trump will announce a pledge from top technology companies to pay higher electricity prices in communities where they are building new data centres. The logic is blunt, data centres are hungry, grids are tight, and voters tend to blame whoever is in charge when the bill lands on the doormat.​

The push has been building for weeks. Trump trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro said the administration may force data centre developers to 'internalize' the costs, arguing they should cover not only electricity consumption but also the resilience impact and water usage. Navarro did not spell out the enforcement mechanism, which is the kind of missing detail that has a habit of becoming the entire fight later.​

Microsoft, at least, has tried to get ahead of the anger. In January, the company said households would not pay more for electricity because of its data centres, with Microsoft president Brad Smith saying, 'Our commitment to these communities is to ensure that our data centers do not lead to higher electricity prices for you.'

Navarro's comments to CNBC went further, citing a 6.9 percent year over year rise in electricity prices in 2025. Meta, responding to Navarro, said it already covers the full costs of the energy used by its data centres and contributes to local infrastructure improvements and grid supply.​

Trump will reportedly also be speaking with other live wires crackling in the background. CNBC reported he is weighing military action in Iran and dealing with a lingering shutdown of the Homeland Security Department tied to Democratic concerns about overreach by law enforcement. He may want Tuesday night to be a single clean economic story. Washington rarely allows that kind of tidiness.​