Fox host fumes at Trump invitation to work with Dem leader: 'Not a good vibe'
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he arrives to attend the 81st United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, US, September 22, 2026. REUTERS/DAVID DEE DELGADO

Fox News host Will Cain could barely hide his irritation Tuesday over how warmly President Donald Trump treated New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani a day earlier — and he wasn't alone among MAGA voices grumbling about it.

"Yesterday in New York, a meeting of the minds between MAGA and socialism," Cain said on "The Will Cain Show," framing Monday's sit-down as uncomfortably chummy.

Much of Cain's irritation stemmed from an off-mic exchange a lip-reader relayed to the New York Post. Lip-reader Jeremy Freeman told the paper Trump privately told Mamdani, "What I will say, we'll look after you, but as I say, you're doing great. I'll look after you, you look after the New Yorkers. And we can both make it work. I wanna support you, help me. Come with me to the White House — see how I work."

"According to a lip-reader, it wasn't a good vibe, even when the mics weren't on," Cain said, before complaining, "As the two get closer, starting to look like so too are the ideologies that are represented."

Cain then pivoted to a Wall Street Journal opinion piece from August to bolster his argument, "The Young MAGA Socialists Are Here," fretting it proved "some young folks on the right are considering socialism as a shortcut to the American dream."

He tersely cited the Journal's numbers: 53 percent of self-identified conservatives under 40 back government-run grocery stores, and in a separate 2025 survey, 42 percent of young conservative likely voters said they'd want a Democratic socialist "to win the presidency in 2028."

The segment landed amid a broader MAGA freakout over Trump's cordiality toward Mamdani, who has emerged as the movement's top villain even as the president keeps extending olive branches — a dynamic that's left even Trump's usual defenders struggling to explain themselves.