Does Elon Musk really have time to focus, as he has threatened, in furtherance of his feud with ex-BF Donald Trump, on the creation of a new political party?
Events are moving apace with regard to Musk’s xAI project in Memphis. Even amid increasing environmental concerns locally, an approval last week by the Shelby County Health Department of permits for methane gas generators at the existing Colossus facility, and this week’s scheduled Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce webinar on the whole matter, Musk has accounted for bigger news yet on that front.
According to various sources, he has confirmed the purchase of an entire power plant overseas, which he intends to ship to Memphis to be located on the additional property he has acquired in Whitehaven. The operation will produce 1 million AI GPUs and up to two gigawatts of power under one roof, enough to power 1.9 million homes.
As Dylan Patel of the industry organ SemiAnalysis put it, “They just bought a power plant from overseas and are shipping it to the U.S. because they couldn’t get a new one [built] in time. … They’re doing all this crazy shit to get the compute.”
Whatever its other consequences, this new development should certainly ease fears concerning the often lamented potential strain to be exerted on Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) by the xAI project.
But worries over the environment are sure to multiply.
• As noted previously in this space, President Trump had, in the early months of his current presidential term, gone on a firing binge in regard to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board of directors, removing three of its members and depriving the board, whose oversight includes MLGW, of a quorum.
He has since nominated as replacements three new members, including Memphian Mitch Graves, the CEO of West Cancer Center.
Graves has been a political backer of (and important fundraiser for) both former Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a nominal if inactive Democrat, and 8th District Republican Congressman David Kustoff.
The other new members of the TVA board are Knoxville attorney Jeff Hagood and Alabama insurance agent Randall Jones.
Trump has also re-nominated Mike Dunavant for a new term as U.S. attorney for Tennessee’s Western District. Dunavant served in that capacity during Trump’s first term.
• Vanderbilt University is well-known for its periodic sampling of Tennesseans’ views on political and civic issues. The university’s most recent poll, more national in scope, was released in mid-June under the rubric of the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and the American Democracy.
The poll contains this interesting nugget from John Geer, co-director of the poll: “Tracking ‘Republicans’ as a single group of partisans no longer tells a complete story. … There are notable differences in sentiment among MAGA Republicans and traditional Republicans, making it critical to consider this distinction when assessing the public’s thinking.”
It’s fair to say that the poll, in that sense, confirms what most political observers, including this writer, have increasingly suspected.
Geer goes on: “On the Democratic side, our efforts to look for differences between wings of the party have found little to no difference.” (It remains to be seen, given such results as that of the recent Democratic primary for New York mayor, which elevated avowed Socialist Zohran Mamdani, if that conclusion holds up.)
Regarding the GOP, Geer observes further: “Identification with the MAGA movement reached an all-time high (52 percent) after the Inauguration, according to the February 2025 Vanderbilt Poll.” In the new poll, that figure has declined to 44 percent.
That finding would square with a variety of recent polls by other sampling services showing growing discontent with numerous Trump initiatives.
Clarification: Commissioner Henri Brooks contends that a recent Politics column misrepresented a position of hers concerning the county budget. The column noted that she wanted to use a small sum under discussion to “feed the hungry,” rather than for its pending purpose (in her words) as “funding for the DA and the Public Defender’s Offices.” DA Steve Mulroy, who was also present, clarified that the specific need for the outlay by his office was to implement parity for identical work being done by county and state prosecutors. The commission kept the money in the DA’s column. No offense was meant to Commissioner Brooks.
