President Donald Trump has branded the federal judge who blocked his renovation of the Kennedy Center as "an anti Trump Hater" and predicted the nation's premier performing arts centre he wanted to shutter for a two-year overhaul will "soon be closed, probably never to open again".
In a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform, Trump fumed about the Friday decision from US District Judge Christopher Cooper who also ordered Trump's name removed from the centre.
Clearly angered by his latest legal setback, he said it was "impossible for me to be treated fairly", tying Cooper's ruling to earlier losses, including the Supreme Court's rejection in February of his sweeping tariffs.
His post aimed to make the case for the project even as he says he's giving up on it.
Hours after Cooper's decision, Trump said he was backing away from the renovations and making arrangements to relinquish control to Congress of what, until the Republican president's second term, had been known as the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In another post on Saturday, Trump invoked the Kennedy Center episode as he addressed a spate of musicians backing out of a celebration for the country's 250th anniversary.
"Cancel it," Trump wrote, "just like I canceled my involvement with the failing and unsafe to be in Kennedy Center, because a Highly Conflicted, Crooked Federal Judge, said that I should not be allowed to spend my time and money in order to MAKE THE CENTER GREAT AGAIN."
Trump asserted the Kennedy Center, named for the late Democratic president and opened in 1971, was "rusted, rotted, and rat and bug infested" and that the "new Building would have been incomparable".
Cooper said the centre board's March 16 vote to close the venue 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. Cooper's ruling halts those plans.
The judge also found that the board "overstepped its statutory bounds" by adding Trump's name to the center.
Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it, he said.
Cooper ordered that Trump's name be removed within two weeks.