A federal judge ruled on Friday that US President Donald Trump's name was illegally added to the Kennedy Centre and blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations, the latest legal setback for Trump's efforts to leave his personal mark on the landscape of the nation's capital.

Trump said in response that he's backing away from his proposed renovation and returning control of the arts institution to Congress.

US District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington DC, ruled that the Kennedy Centre board's March 16 vote to close the facility was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained” with no regard for its legal obligations.

The administration had announced the work would begin in July and last approximately two years, but Cooper's ruling halts those plans for now.

“The trustees might have assessed the propriety of closure in a number of prudent ways. This was not one,” he wrote.

Cooper also concluded that the board “overstepped its statutory bounds” by unilaterally adding Trump's name to the centre.

Congress gave the Kennedy Centre its name, and only Congress can change it, he said.

The judge, who was nominated to the bench by former US president Barack Obama, ordered the defendants to remove Trump's name from the institution's façade and any “official materials,” such as digital or physical signs, within two weeks.

"May the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts be renamed absent Congressional authorisation? The answer, plain from the face of the statute, is no. Nor can any other individual be memorialised on the front portico of the building," Cooper wrote.

Trump said the judge “should be ashamed of himself” in a social media post hours after the decision was issued.

“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 wrote on social media.

Trump said he instructed his administration to “make all necessary arrangements” to have the centre transferred to Congress.

Trump has made it a priority of his second term to leave his personal stamp on some of the most historic spots in Washington.

He demolished the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom.

His name or image have been added to government buildings, including the US Institute of Peace and Justice Department headquarters.

He is pushing for a triumphal arch overlooking the Potomac River.

Opponents have challenged other Trump construction projects in court and won favourable rulings.

But the district court judges likely won't have the final say as the administration pursues appeals. (AP)



Edited by Tony Sabine