Updated at 5:45 p.m. with comments from White House budget director

WASHINGTON — For all his campaign talk of building a border wall and making Mexico pay for it, President Donald Trump has yet to deliver.

With immigration hard-liners starting to lose patience, aides insisted that the lack of funding in a $1 trillion budget deal unveiled in the wee hours Monday represents no setback at all, let alone a sign that Trump is backing away from his promise.

"We realized it was almost impossible if not impossible to actually get bricks and mortar on the ground in five months, so why start fighting about it now?" said White House budget director Mick Mulvaney.

The five-month budget deal includes $1.5 billion extra for border security. While none of that can go directly to the new wall, Mulvaney said, there's enough to fix roads and gates and for other preparations that will speed the project — if Congress ever gives the OK.

That's hardly a given. Border state officials in both parties view the wall as a wasteful.

Democrats gloated Monday after Trump backed down from his demand to include the wall in the temporary budget.

"In a defeat for President Trump, the omnibus does not fund the immoral and unwise border wall or create a cruel new deportation force," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said.

"Maybe if we do a really good job deploying the technology ... maybe it'll help convince people that this is not just demagoguery," said White House budget director Mick Mulvaney.

Disappointed supporters

Immigration hard-liners were disappointed with the deal, which Trump is expected to sign by the end of the week. Congress approved a weeklong spending measure last week to avert a government shutdown.

Bob Dane, executive director of Federation for American Immigration Reform, called the lack of wall funding a "betrayal" that he blamed on a lack of "forceful leadership from the president."

"The art of this new budget deal is nothing to be happy about," he said. "If the Trump administration expects to make good on its immigration promises, this current budget negotiation should be a reality check."

Over the course of his campaign, hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters chanted "Build the wall!" at his rallies. But even among those who wanted the wall, many never believed he would follow through on the promise.

Trump's willingness to delay the wall — to avert a shutdown and to pursue higher priorities —probably jibes with the views of many supporters. Two-thirds of respondents in a University of Virginia survey last week put health care ahead of a border wall.

Mulvaney said the short-term funding is a win for Trump and his plans.

"A lot can happen in five months. Maybe we can prove to folks in both parties that we're serious about this and that the border wall is not just some campaign concept," he said, adding, "Maybe if we do a really good job deploying the technology ... maybe it'll help convince people that this is not just demagoguery. We are serious about securing the border."

Spicer: “Make no mistake, the wall is going to be built,” and President Trump “wants it done as soon as possible” https://t.co/9OUQX9YDUs — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 1, 2017

Mulvaney took issue with the idea that the lack of direct spending on the wall delays the project, given the need to prepare roads before construction can begin.

"Building the border wall is not like building a wall at your house. A lot of this is in very rural areas," he said.

In Texas and other border states, security experts and officials in both parties view a barrier as extensive as that envisioned by Trump as an overly costly and outdated approach to drug smuggling and illegal immigration — a 14th century approach.

Reaffirming commitment

On Friday, Trump reaffirmed his commitment. "We'll build the wall," he told the National Rifle Association in Atlanta. "Don't even think about it. That's an easy one."

But he also went out of his way to say that "you don't need" it everywhere along the 2,200-mile U.S.-Mexico border, especially where "you have certain big rivers" or unspecified "massive structures."

Trump has made similar comments before. But he rarely emphasizes that natural barriers such as the Rio Grande — which defines the 1,254 miles of Texas-Mexico border — makes a wall impossible or unnecessary.

"Obviously the president wants this done as soon as possible," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said at his daily briefing. But he declined to say whether Trump has any firm deadlines in mind. "Make no mistake, the wall's going to be built. The president has made it very clear."

Man-made barriers are already installed along 650 miles of the frontier, mostly in and around urban areas.

Spicer emphasized that when Congress crafts the fiscal 2018 budget that begins Oct. 1, "This will be a major priority."

Trump had portrayed the wall as a top priority well before 2018, and signed an executive order Jan. 25 to begin planning.

The budget deal unveiled early Monday does include some funding for a border barrier: $341.2 million "to replace approximately 40 miles of existing primary pedestrian and vehicle border fencing along the southwest border using previously deployed and operationally effective designs, such as currently deployed steel bollard designs, that prioritize agent safety; and to add gates to existing barriers."

That amounts to $8.5 million per mile.

At that rate, fencing all 2,200 miles would cost $18.7 billion. But new construction is more costly and Trump has derided fencing as inadequate. Senate Democrats say a full-length wall would cost as much as $70 billion. More common estimates are closer to $25 billion, plus annual repair and upkeep.

Trump's demand for Mexico to pay for the wall has angered that country's leadership. President Enrique Peña Nieto canceled a traditional visit to Washington in protest, and his foreign minister has called the wall a "hostile gesture."