Washington — The GOP-controlled Congress on Wednesday severely undermined President Donald Trump’s drive for a border wall, embracing a short-term spending bill that would keep the government open but deny any new money for his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The agreement announced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would fund the federal government through Feb. 8, averting a partial shutdown scheduled to take effect on Friday absent action by Congress and Trump.

But the spending bill would not include any of the $5 billion Trump is demanding for his wall, and it would punt the next round of border wall decisions into the new year, when a new Democratic majority in the House will have the power to stop wall funding from going through Congress.

Without Congress, Trump’s only remaining options for fulfilling his wall promise would rely on a series of legally dubious strategies that face opposition from newly empowered Democrats at every turn.

Congress could send the spending legislation to Trump as soon as Thursday, and congressional leaders said they expected him to sign it before the shutdown deadline.

But the mercurial president — who just a week ago declared he’d be “proud” to shut down the government over the wall funding — did not publicly announce his support for the deal, throwing the outcome into question as Trump’s conservative allies on and off Capitol Hill pressure the president to reject the deal.

“Punting to Feb. 8 on a CR not only gives Democrats a Christmas present, it offers them a Valentine’s Day gift. Democrats will win, the wall will not be built, and Congress will once again have punted when we should’ve been taking a stand. The time to fight is now. Zero excuse,” Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus who talks frequently with Trump, wrote on Twitter. CR stands for “continuing resolution,” a short-term measure that extends government funding at existing levels.

Meadows and other members of the Freedom Caucus planned to take to the House floor on Wednesday evening to rail against the deal. Conservative outlets, including Breitbart and the Drudge Report, also attacked the deal, accusing Trump of caving on the core promise of his campaign.

Trump continued to insist on Wednesday that the wall would be built even without congressional involvement, writing on Twitter that the military would build the barrier. He added: “One way or the other, we will win on the Wall!”

But the legality of that approach is questionable, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats would never allow it to happen.

Trump promised during his campaign for the presidency that Mexico would pay for the wall. Now, with Mexico’s government having paid nothing and the president asking taxpayers for $5 billion, he says Mexico is paying for it indirectly via a newly renegotiated North America free trade deal.