An oak tree that was given to Trump by Macron as a symbol of the French-American alliance has died under mysterious circumstances.
According to The New York Times, “It wasn’t long after the oak tree arrived on the South Lawn of the White House, a gift from a World War I battlefield in France, that it suddenly disappeared…The circumstances of its death are a bit of a mystery. According to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak about the situation, experts who were consulted during the process said differences in soil composition often make it difficult for a foreign tree to take root.”
For the sake of a photo-op, the two leaders transplanted a 5-10-year-old tree from a World War I battlefield. If they wanted the tree to live and be an enduring symbol, they would have planted a new young tree, but that wouldn’t have looked as good on TV or in pictures, so of course, Trump killed a tree for the sake of a moment that no one remembered until the tree was dead. It is typical of the Trump administration that they wouldn’t come out and say that the tree was dead as if the status the oak tree is a state secret.
French president Macron will be sending a new tree as he urged people not to read any symbolism into the death of the first oak, but the death of the tree is symbolic, not just for the US-France relationship, but of the Trump presidency itself. In the age of Trump, things don’t grow and flourish. They shrivel up and die under his perpetual cloud of failure and darkness. Even a tree would rather die than be that close to Trump.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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