White House aides still fear a government shutdown as Trump gets hammered by conservative pundits

Trump White House aides are concerned the president may not sign the government funding bill tomorrow as conservative pundits criticize him for taking a deal that does not include as much funding for his border wall as he initially asked.

CNN reported Thursday that White House aides have shifted from previous statements expressing confidence that Donald Trump would sign the spending bill that allows for $1.3 billion for "border security" — a figure far shy of the $5.7 billion he initially requested.

Trump has "grown increasingly concerned about what's contained in the 1,100-page legislation that was released late Wednesday evening," the report noted.

CNN noted that conservative figures like Fox News host Laura Ingraham have called on the president not to sign the spending bill.

"This bill must NOT be signed," Ingraham tweeted earlier Thursday.

Ingraham's fellow Fox News host Sean Hannity also criticized the deal, going so far as to cut from a Trump rally in El Paso, Texas on Monday to chide him and the GOP for it.

"1.3 billion? That's not a — not even a wall, a barrier?" Hannity said Monday night. "Any Republican that supports this garbage compromise, you will have to explain."

Ann Coulter, an erstwhile Trump supporter whose criticisms of the last border security deal were widely considered to be the precursor to the government shutdown at the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019, again criticized the president directly on Twitter Thursday afternoon.

"This spending bill is so bad," Coulter wrote, "it reads like a joke the Democrats wrote to humiliate Trump."

After Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that the president plans to both sign the funding bill and declare a national emergency, the conservative pundit dug in her heels.

"NATIONAL EMERGENCY WON'T HELP," Coulter tweeted. "IT'S OVER IF HE SIGNS THIS BILL!"