The Senate last night passed a stopgap measure to keep the government funded and avoid a shutdown. The funding bill does not include President Trump’s requested $5 billion for a wall at the nation’s southern border. Trump has promised that the wall will be big, and that it will be beautiful. He had previously promised that Mexico would pay for the wall. More recently, he has stated that he would be “proud” to shut down the government if Congress doesn’t force U.S. taxpayers to pay for it.

With funding for certain key agencies slated to expire on Friday, the Senate’s spending bill would keep the government funded through Feb. 8. The measure still must be passed by the House and signed by the president. Despite the lack of wall funding, Republican leadership has expressed confidence that the president will sign the measure.

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Trump, through his minions, has appeared to retreat from his shutdown threat in recent days, drawing criticism from his base. Ann Coulter called him a “gutless president.” Trump un-followed her on Twitter.

Here’s more from the New York Times:

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Other Republican lawmakers acknowledged that without wall funding included in the stopgap spending bill, they had lost their last foreseeable vehicle to secure funding for the wall, and that they would hand Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, a triumph before the speaker’s election in January.

“I never believed we had a chance to go forward,” said Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana. “I was never as sanguine as some about the possibility that Mrs. Pelosi would risk her speakership to fund President Trump’s wall.”

“It’s been clear to me,” he added, “that at least on this issue, Mrs. Pelosi has been running the show.”

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