Washington DC - President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the Kennedy Center will close down – possibly for good – after a judge ruled his name cannot be added onto the famed arts institution's exterior.

Trump said the Washington cultural venue's trustees voted to shut down for what it is says are vital emergency renovations, and that it won't reopen unless the judgment is overruled.

"The Board of The Kennedy Center today agreed, almost unanimously, to close the Building for Safety reasons, and so that it can begin the process of Reconstruction," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.

Trump said it would close immediately but said the "very large and complex" renovations cannot begin until a higher court rules on whether it can be renamed after himself.

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"If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place."

Shortly after beginning his second term, Republican Trump installed himself as chairman of the center, which is named in honor of late president John F. Kennedy, a Democrat who championed civil rights before he was assassinated in 1963.

The board voted in December to call it the "Trump-Kennedy" Center.

The renaming is one of several projects aimed at stamping Trump's brand on the US capital during his second term, including a triumphal arch and a $400-million ballroom at the White House.

US federal judge Christopher Cooper previously ordered Trump's name removed from the center's exterior and overturned the board's decision to rename the institution.

Workers removed Trump's name from the building in June, but scaffolding and tarps have remained ever since.