Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker called conservative talk radio hosts tyrants following their criticism of the lack of a deal to fund the border wall.

Corker's comments came as the federal government heads to the midnight deadline Friday for a government shutdown. President Donald Trump has said he is prepared for a "very long shutdown" if lawmakers don't agree to fund the border wall.

Trump has made building a border wall one of the major promises of his presidency since the days of his campaign for the White House. Democrats, though, have repeatedly vowed to keep that promise from coming true, and at least two conservative talk show hosts have begun criticizing Trump as a result.

Ann Coulter published a column that called Trump "gutless" and said in a radio interview that she won't vote for Trump in 2020 if he doesn't deliver on the wall.

"Nor will, I think, most of his supporters. Why would you?" she asked, arguing that Trump's time in office will one day go down as "a joke presidency that scammed the American people."

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Trump had "gotten word" to him that he would either be "getting funding to the border or he's shutting the whole thing down." That was after Limbaugh complained a day earlier that it appeared "Trump gets nothing and the Democrats get everything, including control of the House."

CNN reporter Manu Raju reported on Friday that Corker criticized the radio hosts and how Trump has responded.

“Do we succumb to tyranny of radio talk show hosts?” Raju quotes Corker as saying. “We have two talk radio hosts who influenced the president – that’s tyranny isn’t it?”

The Senate is expected to vote Friday afternoon on a short-term spending measure that would keep the government running through early next year and would include $5 billion that Trump wants to build a wall along the nation’s southern border.

Lawmakers have until midnight Friday to pass a spending bill or funding will expire for a quarter of the federal government, triggering a shutdown heading into the holidays and forcing some 800,000 federal employees to go on furlough or work without pay.

Contributing: The Associated Press; Michael Collins and David Jackson, USA TODAY