The sessile oak tree, given by French President Emmanuel Macron to his US counterpart, Donald Trump and planted by the two on the White House lawn, has perished in quarantine, French media reported.
The sad demise of the tree was revealed on Saturday, when Le Figaro wrote confirming an earlier report by Le Monde, citing unnamed French officials. The tree originally sprouted in a forest in the Belleau Wood area, where thousands of US soldiers perished during WWI, and was meant to symbolize the strong ties between the two countries as it grew.
The planting stunt, part of Macron’s April 2018 visit, caused a wave of mockery – and the disappearance of the oak from the White House lawn just a day afterwards triggered a slew of wild theories.
It was later explained that the oak was taken into mandatory quarantine by the US Department of Agriculture to prevent the potential spread of foreign plant diseases onto American soil. The tree was expected to spend two years in isolation, but only made it through one before dying in “custody.”
Macron is said to have given Trump a backup tree, but its fate is unknown. If it survives the bureaucracy, a tree of French-American friendship might still appear on the grounds of the presidential residence.
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