White House tree: Emmanuel Macron's sapling disappears

[left-of-center2012]

Source: BBC

A tree gifted to President Donald Trump by French President Emmanuel Macron has disappeared.

The pair planted the sapling, taken from the site of a World War One battle in north-east France, during Mr Macron's state visit last week.
Mr Macron said the tree would be a reminder of "these ties that bind us".
But a Reuters photographer on Saturday took a shot of only a yellow patch of grass on the White House south lawn where the tree once stood.

The tree, a European sessile oak, came from the site of the Battle of Belleau Wood, which took place in the summer of 1918.
Nearly 2,000 US soldiers died in the battle north-east of Paris.
Yet only four days after it was planted, the sapling has disappeared.

There has been no official reason given for the sapling mystery, but there is speculation online about the tree's fate.

French radio network Franceinfo quotes gardening site gerbaud.com, which says this type of oak is better planted in autumn, giving it time to grow deep roots "to face the drought of the following summer".
"The tree may be back in October," Franceinfo speculates.

Meanwhile, Huffington Post quotes an unnamed official at the Elysée Palace, who said the tree is under quarantine.
US Customs imposes a quarantine period on any plant, seed or soil imported from abroad.
The official reportedly said the tree is doing well.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43941146

[dalton99a]

1. Trump axed it after Macron left

[rock]

3. And said he didn't know what happened to it

You know trump cannot tell a lie (snicker, snicker)!

[dalton99a]

4. Or, there was no tree.

No tree, no tree.

[marble falls]

7. cheetolini was told he wasn't involved.

[MrModerate]

2. This highlights the inept stagecraft . . .

That has characterized the Trump administration's first year-plus.

This guy was in TV for years but he seems to know nothing about advance planning or even the basics of television production. (Like check with the WH gardner and border control before you attempt to plant a tree on the lawn. And you might even decide ahead of time where the spouses stand and what they do, so it doesn't look like they're wandering around in a daze.)

How come he's still so ignorant? Could it be he lost his ability to learn anything 50 years ago?

[Fritz Walter]

5. As someone alluded to here the day it was planted

Inferior Secretary Scott Pruitt chopped it up for kindling to get his coal stove going.

[ucrdem]

6. That was fast.

Two days of civility seems to be the limit before reverting to deplorable SOP.

[Javaman]

8. I had a great uncle who was gassed at Belleau Wood.

fuck the orange asshole.

[ToxMarz]

9. Someone told Trump a story about George Washington, an axe, and a cherry tree

and Trump thought the story should be about him. He wasn't paying attention when they got to the moral of the story "I can not tell a lie."

[Scarsdale]

10. A "patch of yellow grass"?

Now, if that had been a "patch of yellow snow" I would have suspected Russian hookers were to blame.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

11. I'm going with "quarantine," because emerald ash borer, and many other

invasive species. The NPS probably blew a gasket when that tree showed up.

[onetexan]

12. forget the invasive species, it saw trump and wilted

[torius]

13. Trumps are an invasive species.