Fourteen months ago, President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron stood on the South Lawn of the White House for the ceremonial planting of a young oak from France's Belleau Wood, where American soldiers fought in World War I.
"This oak tree (my gift to @realDonaldTrump) will be a reminder at the White House of these ties that bind us," Macron tweeted.
Or not. After the two leaders departed, U.S. officials dug up the tree and isolated it in quarantine — the arboricultural version of family separation — and there it died. French media broke the news this week of the demise of the “friendship tree” at a time when the once-promising Trump-Macron relationship has similarly withered.