WASHINGTON — France's President Emmanuel Macron says that he'll give President Donald Trump a new friendship tree for the White House lawn after the original one died in quarantine.

In a television interview with the Swiss network Radio Télévision Suisse, Macron said, “We will send him another, it is not a tragedy. Do not see symbols where there are none, the symbol was to plant it together."

French news outlets had called the tree's death a metaphor for the turbulence in French-American relations during the Trump presidency.

Friendship tree:Tree planted by Trump and Macron to symbolize French-American friendship has died

“It turns out that this oak was put in quarantine for American sanitary reasons and the poor thing did not survive,” Macron continued. “I’ll send another oak because I think the U.S. Marines and the friendship for freedom between our peoples is well worth it.”

Macron had gifted the tree, a sessile oak from the Belleau Wood, to Trump last year to symbolize 100 years of French-American friendship. The two leaders took part in a ceremony in Washington where they took turns shoveling dirt on top of it, though the tree was soon removed and placed into quarantine like any other agricultural import. Officials confirmed last weekend that the tree died in quarantine.

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