Has the press finally run out of things to be enraged about regarding the President? Probably not, but they might be dredging close to the bottom of the barrel judging by one story I saw cropping up last night. When French President Emmanuel Macron was in Washington for his official state visit, he gave the President and the First Lady a gift of an oak tree. It was a rather special one, having sprouted at Belleau Wood, a famous World War I battle site. The leaders posed for photos as the tree was planted on the White House grounds.

Never ones to leave any fact unchecked when there’s a Republican in the White House, the media circled back in the following days to check on the status of the tree. Wonder of wonders… it was gone. Rumors began to swirl. Reporters demanded answers. But there was nothing coming from the White House about it. (Associated Press)

A mystery is brewing at the White House about what happened to the oak tree President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron planted there last week.

The sapling was a gift from Macron on the occasion of his state visit.

News photographers snapped away Monday when Trump and Macron shoveled dirt onto 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 White House hasn’t offered an explanation.

Did you hear that? No explanation from the White House? Was the tree stolen? Did Trump dig it up and burn it in a fit of rage? Is the First Lady such an incompetent gardener compared to Michelle Obama that she killed it while trying to plant it? Inquiring minds want to know!

I’m guessing that the President could have let everyone know immediately but he was probably just trolling them to see if he’d get a reaction. But as it turns out, there really wasn’t much of a mystery, as was explained today at Boston.com.

The French president’s office says there’s nothing mysterious about the disappearance of an oak tree he planted on the White House lawn.

It was put in quarantine, like other plants or animals brought into U.S. territory…

An official in Macron’s office said Monday that Trump insisted on holding a symbolic planting ceremony alongside Macron despite the quarantine requirement. The official said both sides knew all along that the tree would go later into quarantine.

So, like all other plants, animals, fruit baskets and what have you which come into our country, the tree had to go into quarantine. They posed for pictures while pretending to plant the tree and then sent it off to be isolated until it could be confirmed that it wasn’t carrying any diseases, stowaway insects or anything else dangerous.

Of course, this gives the press something else to criticize the President over if there aren’t any new, major scandals this week. He violated the plant import quarantine protocols! He could have endangered everyone in the country, or at least all of the oak trees! Let me know how long it is before that outrage starts trending on Twitter.