Here’s the more careful forensic framing:

1) Plausibility ≠ documentation

• Plausible scenario: If someone vandalized or stripped trees/shade (or even removed branches/branches used for other purposes), it could anger local residents and raise tension in a crowded city.
• But the Gospels don’t report any such tree incident, and they focus on religious and political conflict (temple authority, accusations, arrest/trial, crucifixion).

So the real question is: what would we need to justify as evidence? Without an external source, it stays speculation.

2) Patterned behavioral response (what crowds usually do)

Between Palm Sunday and Good Friday, the dominant known pattern is:

• Crowd elevation (acclaim/hope) → elite counter-pressure (religious/political leaders) → escalation into arrest and execution once control is challenged.

Even if a minor nuisance event occurred (like vandalism), in a tense Jerusalem environment it would likely be absorbed into the broader power struggle—but it wouldn’t neatly explain the core sequence that the Gospels describe unless there’s a concrete link.

3) The “trigger” claim needs a specific mechanism

To argue this caused major disorder, you’d need something like:

• who did it (Jesus’ followers? opponents? opportunists?),
• how it spread quickly enough across Jerusalem,
• why it changed authorities’ actions against Jesus specifically,
• and where that connection is recorded (in the Gospels or credible early sources).

Without those details, it’s hard to elevate it above “possible background friction.”

If you share the exact claim/source you heard (book/article/tradition, or the words used), I can evaluate whether it’s based on evidence, or whether it’s an extrapolation or later legend.