Data centre boom sparks resident backlash and political split as Trump backs expansion
Massive SpaceXAI data centres in Memphis and along the Tennessee-Mississippi border have provoked health complaints and protests, while Donald Trump champions the projects, creating a partisan divide ahead of the midterms.
Loretta Thornton, a Gulf War veteran who named her Memphis home "Serenity," reports that the adjacent SpaceXAI data centre, called Colossus II, has turned her neighborhood into a constant war-zone of aircraft-like noise and irritating exhaust. The company, a spin-off of Elon Musk’s xAI, operates at least four huge facilities along the Tennessee-Mississippi border, often without public hearings or council votes, leading residents such as Amber Sherman to blame it for respiratory illnesses.
The rapid AI-driven data-centre expansion has outpaced regulation, sparking a national political fight as a YouGov poll shows only 24 % of Americans view new centres positively and more than 200 jurisdictions have enacted moratoria. President Donald Trump has signed orders to accelerate permits and publicly urged towns to welcome the plants, warning they risk becoming "backwards and poor." In contrast, Republican office-seekers in Texas, Wisconsin and Ohio are campaigning against the centres to protect local voters. Lawsuits from the Southern Environmental Law Center allege unpermitted gas turbines, while city air-quality tests have found no dangerous pollutant levels, and promised water-recycling facilities remain delayed.
Why it matters
The dispute pits local health and environment against national economic and political goals, shaping voter sentiment before key elections.
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