With 20 words Thursday, President Donald Trump bowed to the demands of his conservative base and all but ensured nine cabinet departments and a handful of other federal agencies will shut down Friday night.

“In life, there are certain principles worth fighting for, principles that are more important than politics, party, or personal convenience,” Trump said about a government funding standoff with Democrats over his demand for $5 billion for his southern border wall.

The “principles” to which the president referred are a set of hardline immigration policies he and senior aides like domestic policy adviser Stephen Miller — a former Senate aide to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, long one of the chamber’s most conservative members — have pushed since Trump was a candidate for office.

“The safety and security and sovereignty of the United States is the most important principle of all,” Trump said during remarks before he signed a bipartisan farm bill. “If we don’t stand strong for our national borders, then we cease to be a nation and we betray our commitment to the loyal citizens of our great country.”

The president told an audience that included Republican and Democratic lawmakers that he “look[s] forward to signing a bill that fulfills our fundamental duty to the American people.”