New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told millions of residents baking in a holiday weekend heat wave to crank their air conditioners up to 78 degrees, and the internet let him have it. The post on X, made from the official @NYCMayor account, racked up more than 36.5 million views as critics from reality TV stars to sitting governors piled on with a single recurring word: communist.
The mayor's directive came as officials warned that temperatures in the city could feel as hot as 112 degrees. Mamdani framed the ask as a matter of grid stability and public safety, but the optics of a self-described socialist mayor lecturing sweating New Yorkers about their thermostats proved irresistible to his critics, and, notably, to at least one prominent liberal.
Bill Maher, hardly a right-wing figure, used his Friday closing monologue on HBO's "Real Time" to weigh in. The host did not hold back, as Breitbart reported:
"Democrats seem to be having this debate whether or not Mayor Mamdani is a socialist or a democratic socialist. Let me settle it: He's a straight-up Communist."
Maher cited a statement from one of Mamdani's own major advisers who reportedly urged supporters to "elect more Communists." And Maher had a warning for his own side of the aisle.
"If liberals deny it like he's just going through a goth phase, they're going to lose more elections."
The mayor's full message on X laid out what the city was doing and what it expected from residents. Fox News Digital reported the text of the post:
"New York: it's hot out there, and the power grid is working overtime to keep us cool. Set your AC to 78 degrees, turn off lights/electronics you're not using, and unplug what you can. Our City is doing its part too: maintaining the 78 degrees rule in our buildings, dimming/turning off our lights during peak electricity demand, asking private partners to do the same, and powering down non-essential equipment. A stable grid means the AC stays on, and lives are saved. Let's ease demand, and get through the heat, together."
On its face, the post reads like a standard utility-conservation appeal. Cities across the country have issued similar requests during peak demand. But context matters. Mamdani is not just any mayor. He ran as a democratic socialist, won election in November 2025, and was sworn in on January 1, 2026. His political brand is built on state intervention, and his critics saw the thermostat lecture as a preview of what that brand looks like in practice.
The backlash also landed harder because of what preceded it. Just the week before, Mamdani credited anti-Israel campaigning for his endorsed candidates' sweep of New York primary elections. His slate of socialist-linked candidates won across the board, a result that alarmed moderates in both parties.
The responses on X came fast and from every direction. Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy posted: "78 degrees???" followed by "Welcome to communism people! Hope you enjoy!"
Spencer Pratt, the reality TV star and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate, kept it short: "Show us your thermostat, commie."
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh drew the sharpest contrast with the mayor's recommendation. "78 degrees? My AC does not go above 68 in the summer. This is America for God's sake," Walsh wrote.
Elected officials joined the chorus. Rep. Brandon Gill, a Texas Republican, posted:
"Welcome to socialism, where the government demands you turn your house into a sauna because they can't plan for the super unpredictable fact that it tends to get hot in the summer."
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered a six-word review: "Turns out socialism actually isn't free."
Red State writer Bonchie asked, "Do you feel the warmth of collectivism yet?" And Manhattan Institute fellow Daniel Di Martino responded with a meme riffing on the historic "Come and Take It" flag, swapping the cannon for an air conditioning unit.
The mockery was entertaining, but it pointed to a real governing failure. New York City's power grid should be able to handle a summer heat wave. Heat in July is not a black swan event. If the city's infrastructure is so fragile that the mayor must beg residents to sweat through 78-degree indoor temperatures while the heat index hits 112 outside, something has gone badly wrong with planning, investment, or both.
Mamdani's post said the city was "doing its part" by dimming lights, powering down non-essential equipment, and asking private partners to follow suit. That is crisis management, not governance. The question nobody in City Hall appears eager to answer is why the grid is this strained in the first place, and whether the administration's broader policy priorities have anything to do with it.
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani's office for comment. The article did not report receiving a response.
The thermostat episode also cannot be separated from the larger trajectory of Mamdani's mayoralty. His endorsed candidates' primary victories have reshaped the city's political landscape. One Mamdani-backed winner in Queens had previously described 9/11 as a product of capitalism and white supremacy. That is the political ecosystem now surrounding City Hall.
Even within the Democratic Party, the alarm bells are ringing. Veteran strategist James Carville rejected one of Mamdani's primary winners outright, saying she should leave the Democratic Party entirely. When Carville and Maher are both sounding the same warning, the party has a problem that goes well beyond messaging.
Maher's intervention is the most consequential piece of this story. He is not a conservative. He has spent decades needling the right. But his willingness to call Mamdani a "straight-up Communist", and to warn Democrats that denial will cost them at the ballot box, reflects a growing fracture inside the left that party leaders have tried to paper over.
The fracture is simple. One wing of the Democratic Party believes it can absorb self-identified socialists, rebrand them as "progressives," and suffer no political consequences. The other wing, Maher's wing, Carville's wing, sees what voters see: a mayor who ran on socialism, governs like a socialist, surrounds himself with people who say "elect more Communists," and then tells you how warm your living room should be.
Maher recently told Vice President JD Vance that his 2028 vote is "in play" as democratic socialists continue racking up primary wins. That is not a throwaway line from a man who has voted Democratic for decades. It is a signal that the party's leftward lurch has real costs, costs measured not in X engagement but in lost voters.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly reached out to Mamdani by phone after his candidates swept the primaries. The nature of that conversation was not disclosed. But the optics of a former Democratic presidential nominee courting the socialist mayor of America's largest city will not reassure the moderates Maher says the party is hemorrhaging.
Mamdani's thermostat post was not, in itself, the end of the world. Utility companies across the country ask customers to conserve during peak demand. But the post became a symbol because it confirmed what critics have said about this mayor since before he took office: that his instinct, faced with any problem, is to ask the public to sacrifice comfort for the sake of a system the government failed to maintain.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has already drawn fire for welcoming Mamdani-backed democratic socialists into the congressional fold, a decision that underscores how deeply the socialist wing has embedded itself in the party's institutional structure.
The 36.5 million views on Mamdani's post tell their own story. People were not reading it for energy-saving tips. They were reading it because it captured something they already suspected about where New York City is headed under its new leadership, and what it means when the people running a great American city think 78 degrees indoors, during a heat wave that feels like 112, is a reasonable ask.
When the government can't keep the lights on and the AC running in the richest city on earth, maybe the problem isn't your thermostat. Maybe it's who you put in charge.
