(CNN) Last year, two world leaders stood with their wives on the South Lawn of the White House, gold-plated shovels in hand, and happily planted a sapling oak, a gift from France to the United States that symbolized the strength of the allies' bond.

Now, it appears that the tree has met an unfortunate demise. French newspaper Le Monde was first to report that the tree, which French President Emmanuel Macron brought to America as a gift to US President Donald Trump in April 2018, has died while in quarantine. Macron had come to the White House for the first official state visit of the Trump administration.

CNN has not independently confirmed the report and neither the White House nor the US Department of Agriculture responded to CNN requests for comment.

The death of the tree is perhaps no longer symbolic of the ties between France and the United States, as was intended, but more a metaphor for the present fractured relationship between Trump and Macron.

Though the two men were cordial and appeared to get along during last week's D-Day Commemoration events in Normandy, France, which featured a handful of events featuring the Macrons and the Trumps, there has been more recent friction than friendship.

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