For years, the sprawling warehouses powering artificial intelligence have been built on Earth, consuming enormous amounts of electricity and water and running into resistance from the communities where they are located. Now, some of the technology industry’s biggest names are looking to the skies. Google, SpaceX, and a collection of…
Page F5From§Eachthe sunrise edition — 27 September 2026
Commerce secretary calls water fears 'propaganda,' the same fears Trump's own county just cited to ban data centers.
As it ran on the front
Let's reconcile the file, hon.
On August 31st, President Trump posted that any American community declining to host a new AI data center would end up "backwards and poor." Two days later, on September 2nd, his own commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, sat down with CNBC's Squawk Box and worked the same account from the other side. Asked about voters angry over their water and electric bills, Lutnick said watching people worry that data centers use water was "one of my favorite things." In the same appearance, he told viewers those concerns were simply "propaganda."…
…(cont) By September 4th, the public had filed its own response. A Gallup survey found Americans would rather live next to a nuclear power plant than an AI data center, by more than 20 points. Not a hypothetical reactor. An actual one. Preferred.
On September 16th, Loudoun County, Virginia — the county with the highest concentration of data centers in the country — voted to pause new applications for one year. The board tally was seven in favor, one opposed, one abstaining. Not the clean sweep either side likes to claim. A pause, recorded with a dissent and a shrug attached.
Ten days later, on September 26th, Palm Beach County — Mr. Trump's home county — passed a one-year moratorium of its own. The commission's stated reasons, in order: environmental impact, noise pollution, and rising electric bills. Three line items. Not "propaganda." A budget complaint, filed by the county he calls home.
The same week, the Washington Examiner reported that Google, SpaceX and a handful of startups are exploring whether the next generation of data centers gets built off the planet entirely — in orbit, where there is no water table to argue about and no county commission to vote no. Nothing has been ordered. Nothing has been priced. It is, for now, a memo about altitude.
So the ledger reads: the president says don't ask questions or end up poor. His secretary says the questions are manufactured. The county he calls home says the questions cost real money, itemized. And the industry's answer to being told no on Earth is to go looking for a jurisdiction with no zoning board at all.
The gap holds. The word "propaganda" remains unfiled anywhere but CNBC.
“The man telling America that water fears are propaganda works for a president whose own home county just cited those identical water fears to shut the thing down. When people say they'd rather live next to a nuclear reactor than a server farm, that's not a technology preference, that's a bill nobody in Washington wants attached to their name. Somebody's water table drops so somebody else's server farm gets built — read the moratorium, that's the whole con.”
“Look, Secretary Lutnick was addressing a mischaracterization of water usage figures, not water usage itself — the industry runs recycled cooling loops that are extremely — okay, some of it's recycled. And Palm Beach didn't ban anything, that's a one-year pause, there's a legal difference, and — did I just spend thirty seconds defending a pause on my own boss's backyard? That doesn't sound like me.”
The receipts
Palm Beach County passed a one-year moratorium on data centers amid concerns over environmental impact, noise pollution and rising electric bills.
· Trump Commerce Secretary Once Said Data Centers ‘Suck Water,’ Now Scoffs That Such Concerns Are Just ‘Propaganda’ from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Out-of-Touch Trump Says Communities That Reject AI Data Centers Will Be 'Backwards and Poor' from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
· Panic! At the Data Center: Americans would rather live next to a nuke than an AI facility from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Data center hot spot Loudoun County puts pause on new developments for one year from the morgue, 16 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.