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Scroll through our brand new pictures of Chateau Des Palmiers. It's absolutely fabulous. 9 bedrooms. Two pools. Beachfront. Tennis courts. It's huuuuuge! A post shared by St. Martin Sotheby's Realty (@sxmsir) on Apr 20, 2017 at 3:36pm PDT

It’s unclear why the property is for sale. It earned Trump between US$200,000 and US$2 million in rental fees between 2014 and mid-2016, according to financial disclosures. Officials with the White House and the Trump Organization did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The effort to sell the high-priced estate in the midst of Trump’s tenure could present a similar ethical problem to the one his lawyer cited in defending his decision not to sell off his company after the election: that a buyer could overpay as a way to gain currency with the president.

If the estate is sold, the public probably would learn little, if anything, about who has purchased it.

Public records in the French territory do not always show details of private property transactions. Trump would eventually have to disclose the sales price on his financial disclosure form – a report detailing 2017 transactions must be filed in the spring of 2018 – but he would not be required to reveal the identity of the buyer.

In January, before his inauguration, Trump placed his business holdings in a revocable trust overseen by his son Donald Jr. and longtime Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg. He said he was turning over management of the Trump Organization to his two eldest sons, who Trump said are “not going to discuss it with me.”

However, experts said Trump did not give up control of his assets under the trust agreement.

The trust appears to be seeking substantially more for the St. Martin residence than Trump paid the previous owners, Steve Hilbert and his wife, Tomisue Hilbert, an Indiana businessman who had licensed a caviar-based skin-care line developed by Melania Trump, sold Donald Trump the house in 2013. At the time, the Hilberts were seeking US$19.7 million for the oceanfront compound, although the final sales price was never disclosed.