White House Criticized For Taking Christmas Tree From North Carolina That Was “Still Standing” After Hurricane Helene

The Bidens were just trying to have one more Merry Christmas before they leave the White House... That's evidently not going well, at least when you take into account social media backlash. First lady Jill Biden made the announcement earlier this week that the White House Christmas tree that they chose for this year's holiday season came from a Christmas tree farm in North Carolina. Specifically the Blue Ridge Mountain area, which was devastated when Hurricane Helene moved up the eastern part of the United States and caused major flooding. In a message to the media, Jill Biden tried to explain that taking the fir from North Carolina was supposed to symbolize and honor the strength of North Carolina and all that they've gone through recently: "This beautiful Frasier fir was grown at the Cartner Christmas Tree Farm, where the Cartner family has been growing trees for more than 60 years. Their farm is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, a region that was recently devastated by Hurricane Helene. The Cartner family lost thousands of trees in the storm. But this one remained standing, and they named it 'Treemendous' for the extraordinary hope that it represents... This tree recognizes (the North Carolina National Guard's) tremendous strength and service." https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1861146998792913343 As you might imagine, taking one of the only standing trees from the North Carolina tree farm has somewhat backfired on the Bidens. Now in their defense, a lot of Christmas trees are shipped out of the Tarheel state every single year. North Carolina is one of the states known for producing trees to be sent all across the country this time of year, along with Oregon, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. So the White House might have just been trying to honor North Carolina in a way by choosing one of their state's trees. But that's not how it was perceived by the internet:

We are honoring this tree that survived the hurricane by cutting it down.

— bsbench (@bsbench) November 25, 2024

I’ll be generous and say this was one of the more tone deaf moves.

— Bleu Cheque (@VERBAL_CHANCLA) November 29, 2024

It remained standing so you cut it down and hauled it to the White House. Cool cool….

— pnw Bae 🌲 🌙 (@RaquelWelchh) November 26, 2024

this is rich seeing that they have had the most horrendous response to the hurricane and have left people to fend for themselves

— Jessie J 🇺🇸 (@cashsmama08) November 25, 2024

Y'all cut down their last Christmas tree and took it home to show off??? pic.twitter.com/Iga9xOvcQQ

— Sam Rogers (@RealSamRogers) November 29, 2024

Seems I've heard a similar story before, the one about a grinch who takes everything from the people: every last present, all the ornaments & decorations, every scrap of food, and last of all...even the tree

— Lippy McGirk 🇺🇸 🍀 🦅 🚫NO DMs🚫 (@Labradoofus) November 27, 2024