The Kennedy Center's board voted to close the venue for a two-year renovation on Tuesday, but President Trump immediately threatened to block that work unless his name is restored to the building.

The president's threat came just hours after Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C. denied the latest attempt by the venue's board to affix an inscription that says "renovated and restored by Donald J. Trump" under President John F. Kennedy's name on the front portico, and to rename the center's grounds after Trump.

Shortly after Cooper's ruling, the board-stacked with Trump's own appointees, and chaired by the president himself-met, and passed a resolution to close the center for a two-year renovation.

Trump said in a social media post afterward that the venue will close immediately, but that the renovation can't begin until an appeals court rules on the board's approved name for the center. He signaled plans to go to the Supreme Court if he loses.

Cooper's decision Tuesday said the board's attempt to rename the venue violated the order he issued in May, which required Trump's name to be removed from the building-where the board had voted to add it in December. Only Congress has the authority to rename the institution, he ruled at the time.

"Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress's blessing," wrote Cooper, an Obama appointee.

The board has argued the renovation can't be completed without honoring Trump and that there is nothing in the law that stops it from acknowledging his efforts to save the institution. It is Trump's name that is drawing in donations to repair the decimated building, which will have to be demolished if it can't be fixed, Justice Department attorneys told Cooper in court papers.

Cooper seemed to disregard that assertion, saying the board "offered no proof that current or future donations hinge on President Trump's name being on the building."

The ruling marked the latest twist in ongoing litigation over Trump's efforts to overhaul the iconic cultural art institution in Washington, D.C.

Trump has taken a keen interest in the Kennedy Center since taking office for his second term, among several renovation projects in and around the nation's capital, and has expressed frustration with the legal hurdles that his efforts to remake the institution-which he says is dangerously dilapidated and in dire financial straits-have met.

Trump joined the board's virtual meeting on Tuesday, along with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, people familiar with the matter said. He expressed anger with Rep. Joyce Beatty, (D., Ohio), the ex-official board member who sued to get Trump's name taken off the building, calling her destructive, one of the people said.

The resolution the board passed, which was made public in a court filing Monday, said the building is in such disrepair that it is endangering visitors and employees, and that the consulting group hired for the renovation had recommended the closure.

Trump's name first went up on the building in December and came down a little over five months later. Scaffolding wrapped in a white tarp has covered much of the building's name ever since. The board said in court papers that it has been protecting the marble facade, which it suggested may have been damaged when Trump's name was taken down.

Beatty's attorneys hailed Cooper's ruling on Tuesday as "a victory for the memory of President Kennedy and for our nation."

"Two times the court has told President Trump the same thing: You are not above the law," Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky said in a joint statement.