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From an article in The New Yorker is this sentence I read: "...Ryan said was set to the phrase...".

The news alert, which Ryan said was set to the phrase “Trump approval rating falls below fifty per cent among Republican voters,” will inform the House Speaker of the precise moment “that I can bail on President Trump at no political cost to me,” Ryan explained.

What is the meaning?

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    We need more context, please. By itself it does not appear to mean anything, but the surrounding text may give enough extra information for it to make sense.
    – Hellion
    May 25, 2017 at 2:07
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it lacks context.
    – Hot Licks
    May 25, 2017 at 2:23
  • Y'all really don't need more context. I submitted the whole sentence with "set to the phrase" in context. What do you want, the entire article? If y'all can't figure it out just say so. Context, indeed. Y'all need to do more research in addition to Google. Google is a beginners tool. George
    – George
    May 26, 2017 at 19:48

1 Answer 1

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I had to Google that sentence fragment, but it appears to come from a section of a comedy article:

House Speaker Paul Ryan has set a Google News alert to notify him of the instant that Donald Trump becomes unpopular enough to turn against, Ryan revealed on Thursday.

The news alert, which Ryan said was set to the phrase “Trump approval rating falls below fifty per cent among Republican voters,” will inform the House Speaker of the precise moment “that I can bail on President Trump at no political cost to me,” Ryan explained.

In this context, Paul Ryan has configured a Google News alert to inform him of any news articles that contain the phrase "Trump approval rating falls below fifty per cent among Republican voters."

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  • Rather than comedy, I'd say it was political satire, or leaked inside information camouflaged as such.
    – Mari-Lou A
    May 25, 2017 at 6:56
  • Satire would be more accurate, but comedy is perfectly valid. May 25, 2017 at 11:04

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