The photo of President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron planting an oak tree in the garden of the White House symbolised the friendship shown by the two leaders. But relations between them have since frayed — over issues ranging from Iran to trade — and the tree, a diplomatic source said, did not survive.
Mr. Macron offered the oak to Mr. Trump on the occasion of a state visit to Washington in 2018, and the two shovelled dirt around it. It was a symbolic gesture: the tree came from a northern French forest where 2,000 U.S. Marines died during the First World War.
ADVERTISEMENT
But a few days later, the tree was nowhere to be seen, having disappeared into quarantine. “It is a quarantine which is mandatory for any living organism imported into the U.S.,” Gerard Araud, then the French Ambassador to the U.S., tweeted, adding that it would be replanted later. But it was never replanted: the tree died during its quarantine, the diplomatic source said.