Trump says 'no interest' in Kennedy Center overhaul after judge orders his name removed
President Donald Trump says he has "no interest" in continuing his overhaul of the Kennedy Center after a federal judge ruled he couldn't rename the Washington, D.C., performing arts venue or close its doors for lengthy renovations unless Congress approves the plans.
In a social media post Friday evening responding the judge's ruling, Trump said that he wants to turn decision-making about the future of the center over to Congress.
"Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into "NEVER NEVER LAND," Trump said in the post.
"Therefore, based on the fact that the Radical Left Democrats care more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center, almost all of which lose large amounts of money throughout the Country, we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it," Trump said in the post.
Earlier Friday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled
ruled that the rebranding of the Kennedy Center as the "Trump Kennedy Center" violates the law, and ordered that Trump's name be removed from the building within two weeks.
Cooper wrote that the administration "violated the Kennedy Center's organic statute in purporting to rename the Center for President Trump, and in taking steps to effectuate that official renaming, such as installing signage with Donald J. Trump's name on the front portico of the Center, altering the Center's website to name the Center for President Trump, and in issuing official materials naming the Center for President Trump."
Cooper also wrote "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it."
Congress created the famed cultural institution in a federal statute, designating it as a living memorial in 1964 shortly after President John F. Kennedy's death.
Trump announced in December that the Kennedy Center's Board of Trustees, which the president himself now chairs and filled with his hand-picked appointees, had voted "unanimously" to rename the building. Workers added signage with his name shortly after.
Trump also announced earlier this year that the Kennedy Center would be closed for two years starting in July for major renovations.
Cooper blasted the board for making an "ill-informed" and "seemingly preordained" decision to close the center.
"Finally, the Court is preliminarily persuaded that the Board's March 16 vote to close the Kennedy Center pending a years-long renovation represents a dereliction of its common-law- derived duty of prudence," Cooper wrote. "The current record reveals that the Board rendered this ill-informed and seemingly preordained decision without regard for how it would accomplish its full array of statutory responsibilities. The trustees might have assessed the propriety of closure in a number of prudent ways. This was not one."
The changes are being challenged in court by Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who sits on the Kennedy Board of Trustees as one of its ex-officio members.
"Today's ruling rightly affirms that this administration's efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law," Beatty said in a statement Friday. "The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution."
The Trump administration has defended the renovation as fulfilling the board's "responsibilities to repair and improve the Center."
ABC News' Peter Charalambous and Steven Portnoy contributed to this report.
