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It’s ex-tree-me vetting.
The oak sapling gifted to President Trump by French President Emmanuel Macron on his visit to the US last week has mysteriously vanished from the White House lawn — reportedly to go into temporary quarantine under US Customs and Border Protection because it’s a non-native species.
A Reuters photographer snapping pictures of the South Lawn on Saturday noticed that the European sessile oak was nowhere to be found, a conspicuous patch of yellowed grass the only reminder of the world leaders’ planting ceremony last Tuesday, according to BBC News.
While the White House didn’t provide an explanation for the arbor’s abrupt disappearance, the Huffington Post’s French-language site, citing an unnamed French government official, said the sapling is under quarantine.
According to the US Customs and Border Protection web site, “certain plants and ANY plant parts intended for growing (propagative) require a foreign phytosanitary certificate in advance.”
The sapling came from the site of the First World War’s Battle of Belleau Wood, where American and French soldiers fought side by side in 1918.
Macron tweeted that the tree would serve as “a reminder at the White House of these ties that bind us.”
The two world leaders planted the sapling amid a blooming bromance during Macron’s three-day trip to the US, including hearty handshakes and customary French cheek kisses.
But during a speech before a joint session on Congress on the final day of his trip, Macron warned against the dangers of the nationalism and isolationism exemplified by Trump’s foreign policy.
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