Spin control.
Then there's this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1752025/posts
So if the trees don't go back up, we'll hear over and over "Well, we tried to get them back up... We had a petition..."
But if the trees do go back up you can bet there will be a Menorah as well, which will mean the Rabbis 2by4 approach worked.
I'm confident that Rabbi Lapin's efforts are sincere. He has better sense than a lot of folks.