The friendship tree has died. The oak sapling French President Emmanuel Macron presented to President Trump last year to symbolize 100 years of friendship between the two nations died while in quarantine, the French newspaper Le Monde reported. “100 years ago, American soldiers fought in France, in Belleau to defend our freedom. This oak tree (my gift to @realDonaldTrump) will be a reminder at the White House of these ties that bind us,” Macron wrote on Twitter at the time. The two leaders planted the tree on the White House lawn in April 2018 during Macron’s state visit to Washington as their wives, Melania Trump and Brigitte Macron, looked on. But it went missing shortly afterward. Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to the United States, said that the tree had to be dug up and put in quarantine to comply with US customs regulations. The sapling died while in quarantine. More than 1,800 American forces were killed in the battle of Belleau Wood in June 1918.
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