FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron celebrated the special relationship between the US and France during his state visit to Washington last week by planting a tree with President Donald Trump on the grounds of the White House.

Now the oak sapling is gone.

White House photographers noticed the tree was gone days after it had been planted.

The sapling was a gift from Macron on the occasion of his state visit. News photographers snapped away on Monday as Trump and Macron shovelled dirt on to the tree during a ceremonial planting on the South Lawn. By the end of the week, the tree was gone from the lawn. A pale patch of grass was left in its place.

The mystery swirled around the White House as the Trump administration failed to offer an explanation.

In fact, the tree, from Belleau Wood in France where almost 2000 American soldiers died in a World War One battle, had been dug up not long after it was planted.

It was put in quarantine, according to US and French officials.

The problem: parasites on the tree could spread to others on the White House property.

“It was actually a special favour from Trump to France to be able to plant the tree the day of the president’s visit,” an official from Macron’s office said.

“Since then, it has returned to quarantine and will soon be replanted in the White House gardens,” the official said, adding: “Don’t worry, the tree is doing very well.”

Praising the strength of America’s oldest alliance, President Trump had welcomed French President Macron to the White House last week with a pomp-filled ceremony on the South Lawn, opening a day of talks on the future of the Iran nuclear deal and the crisis in Syria. Trump said the partnership he forged with Macron at the start of his presidency was a testament to the “enduring friendship that binds our two nations”.

He thanked the French leader for his “steadfast partnership” during the recent missile strike in response to the chemical attack in Syria.

Macron told Trump that together the US and France would defeat terrorism, curtail weapons of mass destruction in North Korea and Iran and act together on behalf of the planet, a reference to Macron’s work to revive a US role in the Paris climate accord.

“History is calling us. It is urging our people to find the fortitude that has guided us in the most difficult of times,” Macron said.

“France and with it, Europe, and the United States have an appointment with history.”

“This is a great honour and I think a very important state visit given the moment of our current environment,” Macron said after his plane landed at a US military base near Washington.

MELANIA TRUMP ‘FUN’ AND ‘INTELLIGENT’
French first lady Brigitte Macron has heaped praise on her “fun” and “intelligent” American counterpart Melania Trump after her three-day visit to Washington.

Speaking to Le Monde newspaper and RTL radio, Brigitte said she and “kind, charming, intelligent” Melania had bonded further this week after their first meeting in Paris last July.

In Brigitte’s telling, Melania is very different in private to in public, where the 48-year-old former model from Slovenia displays little emotion during appearances with her husband.

“On the contrary she is really fun,” Brigitte said, Le Monde reported.

“We have the same sense of humour, we laugh a lot together.

“Everything is interpreted, over-interpreted. She’s someone who has a strong personality but she makes an effort to hide it. She laughs very easily at everything, but she shows it less than I do,” said Brigitte, who recently celebrated her 65th birthday.

Macron’s wife, his former drama teacher from high school who is 25 years older than him, said she was still adjusting to the constraints of life as France’s first lady, but she was still able to find moments of freedom.

“Melania can’t do anything, she can’t even open a window at the White House. She can’t go outside. Every day, I go out in Paris,” she said.

Brigitte also played down her role as a fashion icon, with each of her outfits widely commented on during her trips abroad.

She said the tailored outfits, which are usually provided by French fashion house Louis Vuitton, were a sort of “skin” that helped shield her from all of the attention.

“I don’t really have that many ideas about what to put on,” she said, adding that Louis Vuitton artistic director Nicolas Ghesquiere was in charge of her wardrobe.

As for her public responsibilities, she said she did her best not to be a “vase of flowers” in the background of her husband while abroad and joked about the need to respect the choreography of the US state visit.

This often involved following stickers on the floor to her position during the ceremonies. “Can it be any other way? I don’t know,” she said.

Brigitte insisted that only her clothes had changed, not her — reinforcing her down-to-earth image which has made her a more popular figure than her husband, according to polls.

“In my head, I’m Emmanuel Macron’s wife, not the president’s wife. I don’t feel like a first lady even though I’m aware of my responsibilities,” she said.