When French President Emmanuel Macron visited the United States in April 2018, he and Donald Trump planted an oak sapling on the lawn of the White House. The planting of the tree was supposed to be a symbol of some kind of union between the United States and France. According to numerous U.S. outlets, the tree has died.
USA Today reports, “The tree was removed by American authorities a few days after it was planted to be placed in quarantine like any other agricultural import to the United States. Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to the United States, took to Twitter [in April 2018, when it was noted that the tree had disappeared from the lawn,] to reassure people that the tree ‘will be replanted afterwards.’"
The tree has never been replanted. As with everything else it touches, this administration doesn’t even have the patience or competence to go along with even pretense for longer than an afternoon. According to the French media outlet Le Monde, the poor sapling died in quarantine. Le Monde pointed out that the sapling’s was symbolic in death as well, mirroring the diverging paths of Macron and Trump and of French-American relations.