Melania gets to root of Donald’s stirring oratory

deSPIte her best efforts, Melania trump is likely to go down in history as the woman who cut down a historic, 200-year-old magnolia tree from the White House grounds (inset). It’s not the whole story but it’s the story that will stick, given the trumps’ reputation for vulgarity. In fact the United States national arboretum insisted there was no saving this tree, reportedly planted in 1835 by former president andrew Jackson. and in any case, Melania has had the tree trimmed back rather than removed, and cuttings have been saved to replace it. She probably spotted the unflattering optics. But perhaps there was something more than environmental concerns behind the whole business... earlier this year, on the 250th anniversary of Jackson’s birth, her husband referred to the tree in a speech at nashville that, typically for trump, cannot be paraphrased: ‘I can see out the wonderful, beautiful, large, great window to an even greater magnolia tree, standing strong and tall across the White House lawn. that tree was planted there many years ago… Beautiful tree…. I looked at it actually this morning. really beautiful.’ Maybe Melania, hearing that speech, ordered the removal of the magnolia as a wifely service, to give her husband one less thing to find adjectives for.