Trump to hack down historic tree in another dramatic White House change
President Donald Trump is using the White House lawn to combine two of his favorite hobbies: erasing history and deforestation.
Trump is removing a historical tree on the South Lawn planted by late President Andrew Jackson nearly two centuries ago.
“The bad news is that everything must come to an end, and this tree is in terrible condition, a very dangerous safety hazard, at the White House Entrance, no less, and must now be removed,” Trump wrote Sunday via Truth Social.
He added that the tree will be cut down next week and replaced by “another very beautiful tree.”
On the bright side, Trump will reportedly have the wood preserved and repurposed, writing that it "may be used for other high and noble purposes!!!”
It’s unclear what purposes the president has in mind, given that he has already made some controversial changes to the White House since starting his second term.
If we were to guess which “noble” purposes Trump is leaning toward, he could be thinking about a couple of his recent projects.
He could always reuse Jackson’s southern magnolia as a new frame for his mugshot in the hallway of the White House. Eagle-eyed reporters caught glimpses of mugshot not long after Trump took office, and for now, it’s ornate with gold.
Or he could use it as decor around his copy of the Declaration of Independence, which hangs on a wall in the Oval Office behind a curtain. (How’s that for on the nose?)
Or if living out his knockoff of “National Treasure” doesn’t work out, he could use the wood on the dance floor he intends to put over the grass of the Rose Garden. Insiders told The New York Times in February that Trump and his wife, Melania, intend to pave over the grass in the Rose Garden to mimic their marble-slabbed surfaces at Mar-a-Lago.
Related | Say goodbye to the Rose Garden at Trump’s White House
All in all, Trump has plenty of options for how to pay homage to the presidents who came before him. Only time will tell how noble his choices will be.
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