If a tree is planted on the White House lawn and hundreds see it while dozens of photographers shoot thousands of pictures, did it really happen?
That’s the question lingering after President Trump and his new best buddy, French President Emmanuel Macron, planted a tree on the grounds of America’s House on April 23.
The small oak sapling tree was a gift from Macron and comes from Belleau Woods near the Marne River in France, where in 1918 U.S. forces suffered 9,777 casualties, including 1,811 killed in the Belleau Wood battle of World War I. A week ago, Trump and Macron were seen wielding spades as they shoveled dirt over the root ball.
Then the tree disappeared. Poof, gone.
No one knew where it went; news agencies wrote stories, puzzling about its disappearance.
Then on Sunday, France explained. The tree, it turns out, had to be placed in quarantine.
“It is a quarantine which is mandatory for any living organism imported into the US,” Gerard Araud, French ambassador to America, wrote on Twitter. “It will be replanted afterwards.”
As some pointed out, putting the sapling in quarantine after it was planted doesn’t solve much. But Araud explained that, too.
Vive la France!