<p>WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) &#8211; President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration will transfer control of the Kennedy Center to Congress, after a judge ordered the removal of Trump&#8217;s name from the iconic Washington venue and blocked his plans to close it for renovations.</p>
<p>Trump said on social media that he instructed the U.S. Commerce Department to &#8220;make all necessary arrangements with Congress to allow a full and complete transfer of this Institution&#8221; and give lawmakers responsibility over its operation, maintenance and management.</p>
<p>It was not immediately clear how Trump&#8217;s directive could be carried out. The Kennedy Center was created by Congress in 1958 and is run by a board of trustees that the president has packed with allies in his second term.</p>
<p>Trump&#8217;s announcement came after a judge on Friday ruled that the performing arts center, which Trump renamed the &#8220;Trump Kennedy Center,&#8221; cannot be renamed without an act of Congress.</p>
<p>U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington directed the Trump administration to take down all physical signage bearing Trump’s name and to eliminate any references to a &#8220;Trump Kennedy Center&#8221; from official materials within 14 days.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Kennedy Center&#8217;s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board&#8217;s unilateral say-so,&#8221; Cooper wrote. &#8220;Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Cooper&#8217;s order also stopped the Trump administration’s planned two-year closure of the Kennedy Center for major renovations, though the judge said &#8220;sorely needed&#8221; repairs to the aging building could move forward.</p>
<p>The judge said his decision &#8220;does not purport to dictate how the Center should be run, nor does it prescribe any particular plan for the institution — construction, closure, or otherwise — moving forward.&#8221;</p>
<p>In a Friday post on Truth Social, Trump said large-scale renovations set to begin next month would be impossible without a closure and that Cooper&#8217;s order to keep the center open would be dangerous.</p>
<p>&#8220;I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight,&#8221; Trump said.</p>
<p>Cooper ruled in a lawsuit brought by Ohio Democratic U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty, a member of the Kennedy Center&#8217;s board by virtue of her position in Congress. Beatty in a statement after the ruling said the &#8220;Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump.&#8221;</p>
<p>PUSH TO REMAKE WASHINGTON</p>
<p>Trump&#8217;s plan to renovate the center is part of a broader push by the Republican leader to reshape Washington&#8217;s monumental core. He also intends to erect a 250-foot (76-meter) arch and to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the site of the demolished East ​Wing of the White ​House.</p>
<p>Those efforts also face court challenges. A federal appeals court has allowed the Trump administration to move ahead with building the ballroom as ​it considers a lawsuit seeking to block it.</p>
<p>Beatty sued the Trump administration in December, calling the renaming of the building “a flagrant violation of the rule of law&#8221; that &#8220;flies in the face of our constitutional order.”</p>
<p>Her lawyers in a statement applauded Cooper&#8217;s decision. &#8220;This is a powerful blow against the Trump administration’s corruption,” attorneys Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky said.</p>
<p>The board could still close the Kennedy Center, Cooper wrote, “should it come to this decision anew after independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center in a prudent fashion.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Kennedy Center opened in 1971 as a living memorial to the late President John F. Kennedy.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Edmund Klamann and Andrea Ricci )</p>

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Trump To Congress: You Run The Kennedy Center