Having an AI data center near your home can be an absolute nightmare. Many people assume that whatever major companies decide to build has no direct impact on their lives, but that belief falls apart the moment one of these enormous facilities shows up in their community. In reality, a hyperscale data center can affect the people living nearby in very real and harmful ways. These facilities consume an incredibly high amount of water, sometimes millions of gallons in a single day, which places significant strain on local water sources and damages the surrounding environment. They also require huge amounts of electricity, and the increased demand often leads to higher energy costs that affect everyone in the area. For these reasons, many residents across the country have begun to oppose the rapid expansion of AI data centers, including those in Starke County, Indiana.
What makes the situation in Starke County stand out is the political contrast. The county voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2024, with roughly 75 percent of residents supporting him. Despite this strong political alignment, people in the community are now loudly opposing a major part of Trump’s current AI development agenda. In a video circulating online, a Starke County man can be heard rallying his neighbors to speak out against the construction of new AI data centers in their area. They are demanding a one year moratorium on hyperscale data centers and want county officials to protect their community from environmental strain and industrial disruption.
This local pushback is very different from the national direction of Trump and his administration, who have been closely aligned with large tech companies that are aggressively expanding AI and producing enormous volumes of AI generated content. In the video, residents express how hard life already is in Starke County and how they believe a giant AI data center would make things even more difficult. Several people say they do not want their county turned into an industrial zone just to benefit billionaires and tech giants. Some even say they want a complete ban on new data centers in the region.
Internet users who heard about what happened in Starke County showed a lot of sympathy. Many argued that nobody wants to live near an AI data center and that these projects clearly benefit only the wealthy. One user wrote, “Guys, I’m really starting to wonder if the billionaire who lives in a golden penthouse in Manhattan and a coastal Miami country club with a million dollar joining fee might not have the interests of small town Indiana as a priority.”
Other commenters were far less sympathetic. Some argued that residents of Starke County were now facing the consequences of the political choices they made. These commenters believed that the politicians supported by the county were never interested in the well being of ordinary citizens and cared only about the wishes of the ultra rich and powerful. One user said, “Hey these idiots voted for this.”
