A ferocious Hurricane Irma barreled early Wednesday morning across the Caribbean island of St. Martin, where President Trump owns a lavish waterfront estate, wrecking buildings, overturning cars and uprooting trees with punishing winds.

The status of Trump’s 11-bedroom gated compound on Plum Bay, which is on the market, was not immediately known. But officials with the French government, which controls the side of the island where his beachfront property is located, said the territory suffered widespread destruction.

“It’s an enormous catastrophe. Ninety-five percent of the island is destroyed,”  Daniel Gibbs, the president of the territorial council, said in a radio interview, according to AFP. “I’m in shock. It’s frightening.” [....]

Trump’s Chateau des Palmiers estate — whose name translates to “Castle of the Palms” — covers nearly five acres and comes with a pool at the beach’s edge, a tennis court and fitness center. The trust that oversees his holdings recently slashed the asking price from $28 million to $16.9 million.

Trump and his family visited the property frequently after purchasing it in 2013. But in recent years, the estate has largely served as a rental, generating between $100,000 and $1 million between January 2016 and April 15 of this year, according to the president’s financial disclosure [.....]