> this is a wildly bad-faith argument

No. Calling it illegal is just something people do because they hate musk. They fell into a loop hole and had no permits as they were technically allowed if they stayed in 1 spot for less than 364 days. EPA later determined they did not qualify and required permits, permits were later granted.

Musk operated in a grey area to run his business to avoid having an idle data center while other people dragged their feet.

I purposely cut off `illegal` because calling it `illegal` was bad faith to begin with. But it's not unexpected that musk haters will come out raising banners in protest.

Are they actually u permitted, what does the government say? Why haven't they gone in with the police?

I expect they have permission.

At the very least, they have permission of the federal government which threw out all of the court cases against them.