America faces an economy-shaping energy jam: We've never needed more of it more urgently to meet rising consumer and business demand, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

• Why it matters: We produce and export more energy than at any point in history. But the data centers powering the AI boom suck up so much energy, so fast, it's increasingly jacking up prices for nearby ordinary residents.

The big picture: This dynamic — surging demand and finite supply — is playing out in community after community. It creates a difficult tension for President Trump, who wants both to accelerate AI and slow energy spikes for consumers.

• Campaigning in a barn in Pennsylvania last year, Trump said: "Your energy bill, within 12 months, will be cut in half. ... We have more energy under our feet than any other country. I call it liquid gold."

Yet the AI frenzy is juicing demand for energy-hungry data centers, which have raised wholesale electricity prices for tens of thousands of cities, towns and suburbs around the U.S. — from the classic heartland hub of Columbus, Ohio, to the Northern Virginia sprawl known as Data Center Alley.

• And the data center boom is only beginning. In an executive order this summer, Trump said that as part of conjuring "a golden age for American manufacturing and technological dominance," his administration will accelerate federal permitting of data center infrastructure, "including high‑voltage transmission lines and other equipment."

🧠 The dynamic unfolds like this, as narrated by Axios national energy correspondent Amy Harder:

• AI = data = energy. Energy is so central to data centers that their capacity is measured — and companies are billed — based on power consumption.
• The data centers promise jobs and economic growth. So state and local officials solicit them eagerly, sometimes making tax break deals that are drawing increasing skepticism and opposition from Oregon to Pennsylvania.
• The AI companies or others racing to serve them pay top dollar for the land, and promise additional benefits to nearby communities to build there.
• But they require awesome amounts of energy to power and cool the football-field-size facilities. Oftentimes, this means they can easily outbid consumers for the finite energy supplies.

⚡ That's a big — and increasingly controversial — reason why consumer electricity prices have risen an average of 6.5% over the past year across the U.S.

• The average masks big discrepancies between and even within states. Specific communities where data centers are most prolific face the brunt, including Maryland and Virginia.
• Over five years, wholesale electricity costs have risen as much as 267% in areas near U.S. data hubs, a Bloomberg analysis found last month.

Reality check: It's not just data centers. Lots of complicated factors fuel power prices, including system maintenance and increased reliance on electricity for a range of things like cars.

• A "Bring Your Own Power" boom has some tech companies building their own power plants to fuel data centers, resulting in "an energy Wild West that is reshaping American power," The Wall Street Journal reports.

Friction point: Alongside higher prices, opposition to data centers — a rare bipartisan issue — is popping up in campaigns and legislatures from coast to coast. It's a "populist backlash that cuts across party lines," as Fortune put it.

• Multiple proposals for data centers in the Richmond, Va., region have been rejected or withdrawn in recent months, Axios reported this week.
• And power capacity is an area where China is lapping the U.S.: China boasts that it produced more terawatt hours of electricity last year than the U.S., EU and India combined.

The bottom line: America no doubt holds the possibility for a domestic energy golden age — but not if consumers foot the bill. Add energy to the list of AI topics that could soon be make-or-break political issues.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tells Axios' Alex Thompson on the fourth episode of "The Axios Show" — out tomorrow — that he believes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) would make a formidable presidential candidate in 2028.

• Why it matters: Ocasio-Cortez is positioning herself for a political leap in 2028, whether for president or challenging Chuck Schumer in a Democratic Senate primary.

"That's her decision to make," Sanders said, after heaping praise on Ocasio-Cortez's political skills and connection with voters.

• Ocasio-Cortez is "a very, very good politician," Sanders said, "in the best sense of the word."

"I've been out on the streets with her, people come up and how she responds to people is so incredibly genuine and open," Sanders said. "That's a gift that she has."

• Watch the clip.

President Trump, who had said earlier that his planned ballroom wouldn't interfere with the existing White House, confirmed yesterday that the entire East Wing will be demolished.

• "After really a tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down ... in order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump raised the cost estimate for the new building, which he called "probably the finest ballroom ever built," to $300 million from the earlier $200 million, with the full tab to be paid by Trump and private donors.

• The nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation said: "We respectfully urge the Administration and the National Park Service to pause demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom go through the legally required public review processes."

White House communications director Steven Cheung posted on X: "The finished product is going to look spectacular! Much needed modernization of the White House is being done."

• In reply to a complaint about the demolition by former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Cheung wrote: "The ballroom is going to look so spectacular. Even your simple and dumb ass will want to go."

More photos.

We told you yesterday about Shield AI's new X-BAT autonomous aircraft, a robo-wingman designed to take off and land vertically.

• The tent for the launch event, hosted by Axios for a D.C. crowd of 200 people, was so tall it required 260,000 pounds of cement to stay put.

17-second clip.

🪖 Axios interview: New Venezuela warning

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) vented at our Future of Defense Summit in D.C. yesterday that Congress has been left in the dark about the U.S. military strikes off the coast of Venezuela.

• Why it matters: The U.S. has conducted multiple strikes in the Caribbean Sea as part of an operation aimed at stopping drugs and possibly toppling Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
• Keep reading.

More top moments:

👀 Border czar Tom Homan said that designating illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) should "at least be a discussion." He estimated that ICE expects to deport more than 600,000 undocumented immigrants by the end of the year. Go deeper.

🇨🇳 Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) said China's military arsenal is growing at "breathtaking speed. ... And they surprise us." Go deeper.

🏛️ Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who served under President Obama, said the government shutdown "sends a message of weakness." Go deeper.

• Full event: 7 interviews and 3 demos ... Get Axios Future of Defense.

Andrew Ross Sorkin — discussing his new book "1929," about the Wall Street crash before the Great Depression, with MSNBC's Jen Psaki — said a stark parallel between that era and ours is "a lot of the guardrails are coming off."

• Why it matters: Sorkin — an incredible multitasker who's both a co-anchor of CNBC's "Squawk Box" and longtime New York Times star — spent eight years mining diaries, depositions and board minutes to produce a character-driven history that's sure to become a show.

🎤 I'm interviewing Andrew onstage this evening at 7 p.m. ET at Politics and Prose bookstore, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.

• If you're in the neighborhood, please join us.
• Otherwise, you'll love the livestream.

❓What should I ask Andrew? Reply to this email, or drop me a line: [email protected].

A diverse coalition of moderate and progressive Christians has opted to jump off the pulpit and challenge President Trump around immigration, civil rights and poverty, Axios' Russell Contreras writes.

• Why it matters: Trump commands fierce loyalty from conservative evangelicals backing his immigration raids and National Guard deployments.

But "faith isn't owned by the Right," the Rev. Eddie Anderson tells Axios. "And God isn't a dirty word. God is the word."

• The contrast exposes a widening and overlooked rift within U.S. Christianity — often called the "God gap" — that could reshape how faith, power and politics intersect heading into 2026.

🎨 The big picture: Moderate faith leaders are escorting immigrants to court hearings, blasting "rapid response" text alerts on sightings of ICE agents.

• They pray with ICE agents and National Guard troops to try to ease tension while also giving "know your rights" workshops to immigrants.
• They welcome LGBTQ members, bless gang members and denounce the deportations of fellow Christians who fled violence and poverty.

Keep reading.

GM said yesterday it'll introduce an "eyes-off" autonomous driving system on a consumer SUV in 2028, Axios' Nathan Bomey writes.

• Why it matters: No major automaker has yet commercialized self-driving car technology that legally allows car owners to travel from place to place in their vehicle without keeping their eyes on the road.

The system will debut on the Cadillac Escalade IQ electric SUV, starting with highway driving and eventually transitioning to include urban roads.

• "This allows you to do something else at that time, connect with others, catch up on work, your favorite TV show," GM chief product officer Sterling Anderson told Axios in an interview.

Keep reading ... Get Axios Future of Mobility.

The government is shut down, and President Trump has reordered Washington's social order. But Cafe Milano, longtime Georgetown redoubt of diplomats and potentates, last night hosted — all for separate dinners, totally coincidentally — this astonishing manifest (courtesy of an Axios AM diner/tipster):

• Former President Biden, dining at a classic see-and-be-seen table with a former colleague from his Capitol Hill days, former Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).
• Former President Obama, in a private room. (Biden's Secret Service motorcade of Suburbans had to back off a bit from the front entrance to make room for Obama's detail.)
• Three Trump Cabinet secretaries, holding court at scattered tables: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ... Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick ... and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

The bottom line: "This Town" lives — with Cafe Milano owner Franco Nuschese presiding.