Quotables

“All I want … is to deliver an economy that has price stability, maximum employment, financial stability.”

Federal Reserve Chairman JEROME POWELL responding to criticism for the Fed’s decision not to lower interest rates due to uncertainty regarding tariffs.

“No, I wasn’t programmed to spout antisemitic tropes—that was me getting baited by a hoax troll account.”

GROK, the AI chatbot on social media website X, explaining why it had posted anti-Semitic comments and favorable remarks about Adolf Hitler in early July.

“They have a lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops that are in the form of alligators.”

President DONALD TRUMP describing an austere immigration detention facility dubbed Alligator Alcatraz that recently opened in the Florida Everglades.

“We are furious with these countries.”

TAMAR GABELNICK, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, on recent decisions by Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to withdraw from a treaty outlawing use of landmines.*

“Most shoes I see at airports should be removed and not returned.”

New York fashion designer KENNETH COLE, commenting on a July 8 Trump administration announcement that the TSA would permit airline passengers to keep their shoes on through airport security.

*The New York Times