The visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Washington culminated in the planting of a French oak tree as a symbol of the long-standing friendship of the two nations. Unbeknownst to most watching, the tree was promptly dug back up after the ceremony and sent to quarantine. Regrettably, the tree (like relations with France) has died in quarantine.
At the time, I was highly critical of the speech by Macron before the Congress where he was enthusiastically received despite alluding to European speech controls. Like the tree, I warned about the dangers of invasive species like speech regulations.
While Macron remains quite popular here, he has actually had lower poll numbers than Trump. Right now, the tree is the least of his concerns with the ongoing “yellow vest” protests. However, his polls have finally crawled back to 40 percent.
I still want the French oak but I would leave Macron’s anti-free speech policies in Europe.