Right-wing media blamed “climate cultists” and called New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani a communist for “forcing” residents “to roast” during an intense July heat wave after the mayor recommended that New Yorkers set their air conditioners to 78 degrees to avoid straining the city's electric grid.

On July 1, ahead of a heat wave that broke records in New York and New Jersey over the Fourth of July weekend, New York City released a statement “asking every business and every New Yorker to do their part in protecting energy grid reliability by setting their thermostats to 78 degrees and holding off on running major appliances until early morning or late at night.” 

News outlets reported a deluge of attacks from right-wing politicians who called the recommendation “woke” and an example of Democrats embracing “communism.” The New York Post accused Mamdani of promoting “heat for thee, but not for me” after reporters “tested 20 spots within City Hall and other municipal offices and buildings” with infrared thermometers and found that “all but five of them were below 78 degrees.” 

But Mamdani is not the first government official to make the recommendation. Reporting from The Verge noted that prior to Mamdani’s post, setting thermostats to 78 degrees had been a standard recommendation from the Department of Energy. This information was previously available on the department’s webpage, but according to The Verge, “The US Department of Energy reportedly deleted about 6,000 pages related to energy conservation.” The outlet called the move “suspiciously timed,” though it did not allege or provide evidence that the pages were deleted in direct response to the controversy. 

The 78-degree recommendation has likewise been amplified in the past by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (which operates the state’s electrical grid), PSEG (the utility company that services Long Island), and even former Republican New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. 

• Pro-fossil fuel author Alex Epstein called Mamdani’s message “a travesty” on Facebook and wrote, “If New York State hadn't blocked so many natural gas pipelines and retired reliable power plants, this wouldn't be happening.” [Facebook, 7/14/26; The Washington Post, 4/6/22]
   
• Speaking with Climate Depot executive editor Marc Morano, Just the News No Noise co-host Amanda Head accused Mamdani of forcing New Yorkers to live like “like lizards in a terrarium because setting our thermostats from 78 to 85." Morano claimed that by making this recommendation, Mamdani is embracing Europe's “air conditioning policy,” which he called “perhaps the most inhumane, antihuman, antidevelopment, and unscientific of any of their climate policies.” He added, “Europe is way behind on the times, so Mamdani taking a page.” [Real America’s Voice, Just the News No Noise, 7/9/26; DeSmog, accessed, 7/10/26]
   
• WOR radio host Mark Simone told Fox Business' Larry Kudlow, “You fight for scraps while they get everything. … Even this past weekend Mamdani making speeches — during the heat wave, put the thermostat up to 78. Reporters came in with thermometers. He had it at 68.” He added, “That’s the way socialism works.” [Fox Business, Kudlow, 7/8/26]
   
• Fox host Charlie Hurt told Morano, “It really is amazing to me to watch these communists emerge, and there is about a 100% overlap between communists and the climate cultists.” Morano said, “It's the same ideology, and they're using the climate scare to achieve it. This is exactly the same tactics they used during COVID to support the lockdowns and the stay-at-home orders and all the mandates. So what we're seeing here with Mamdani, with the 78 degrees … we're finding across the climate spectrum, all they want to do is control every aspect of our lives.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 7/6/26]
   
• Manhattan Institute fellow Daniel Di Martino told Fox host Trey Gowdy that socialists were “calling for my arrest because I chose to put the thermostat at a lower temperature than Mamdani’s mandated 78 degrees.” [Fox News, Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy, 7/5/26]
   
• Citing Mamdani’s New York City as an example, Alex Jones called Democrats “cyanide” and “rulers” of a “takeover system.” “That’s all  coming up — Mamdani, all of it. I mean it’s — you can’t make this up,” Jones continued, “Mamdani came out last week and said, set your thermostats at 78 and open your windows. There’s not enough power — because they got rid of the coal power plants and everything.” [Alex Jones Network, The Alex Jones Show, 7/5/26]
   
• Fox News host Tomi Lahren said on The Big Weekend Show, “Maybe these young nincompoops who voted for him are finally getting a taste of what socialism really is, and that’s rationing.” [Fox News, The Big Weekend Show, 7/5/26]
   
• Lahren also said on The Ingraham Angle: “This is exactly what these young and mostly white liberals voted for. They wanted socialism. They want 78-degree apartments and Section 8 housing for all. Except for, of course, the ones at the top like Mamdani.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/3/26]
   
• Fox News host Sean Hannity attacked “Mayor Marxist Zohran commie Mamdani” in part because he said he did not “want to be freezing in the middle of winter, and I don't want to alter my lifestyle because you're so stupid that, you know, you buy into this climate alarmism, radicalism." Referencing the New York Post article, Hannity said, “Temperatures apparently inside City Hall apparently plunged as low as 54 degrees yesterday during this heat wave. ... I mean, it's sort like, oh, OK, AC for me and the elite, but not for thee.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 7/3/26] 
   
• Filling in for Glenn Beck, radio host Justin Barclay claimed that “today, commie Mamdani and the rest of the folks in New York City are asking politely, but tomorrow, once they fully have the capability to do it — and we're not far off — they'll quit asking.” Instead, Barclay claimed, “They’ll tell you: This is how it’s going to be.” He continued to argue that if Democrats are elected there will be “misery for the working class,” as supposedly evidenced by the fact that “Mamdani, his office isn't set on 78.” [YouTube, The Glenn Beck Program, 7/3/26, 7/3/26]
   
• Barclay said that the grid would not be stressed “if we weren't turning off coal plants under Biden and Obama, maybe if we weren't out there pushing wind, solar, and unicorn farts.” [YouTube, The Glenn Beck Program, 7/3/26]
   
•  The Alex Jones Network’s Harrison Smith: “Now you have Mamdani's City Hall had its AC cranked to frigid temperatures as New York City forced to roast with the 78-degree rule.” He continued, “Democracy, i.e. Zohran Mamdani, decided that 78 degrees was good enough for you. So that’s what you’ll be stuck at.” [The Alex Jones Network, War Room, 7/3/26]
   
• On PBD podcast, panelist Adam Sosnick said that Mamdani is “literally … going into their houses and telling them what to do in the confines of their house.” Later, panelist Vincent Oshana said, “Once they’re in power … it’s like, they’re not going to request. They’re going to say, Listen, we’re going to put something on your thermostat that’s not going to let you go above this type of temperature.” [Valuetainment, PBD Podcast, 7/3/26, 7/3/26]
   
• Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet: “Is there any more socialist image possible than you got rent freezes and then you got, you know, freeze your thermostat at 78?” [The Charlie Kirk Show, 7/2/26]