A week after President Donald Trump told Democratic leaders he would be "proud" to shut down the government to get finding for his promised border wall, the White House on Tuesday morning indicated it would find others ways to get money for the project, averting a pre-holiday public relations headache.

"At the end of the day, we don't want to shut down the government, we want to shut down the border," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News. She added that "we have other ways that we can get to that $5 billion," including patching together different funding sources with congressional appropriations.

The announcement is a big relief for federal workers at nine agencies and several smaller departments, including Homeland Security and Justice, who were facing the prospect of being unpaid while Congress and the White House battle over the border wall.

It's also a big win for congressional Democrats, who are weeks away from assuming official majority power in the House of Representatives, and especially for the chamber's presumptive incoming speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.

At a heated, televised meeting last week, Pelosi firmly and repeatedly told Trump he did not have the votes – even in the departing GOP-controlled House – to approve the $5 billion he wants to build a physical wall on the southern border. Trump pushed back, saying it was Senate Democrats who would filibuster it, and so there was no point even trying in the House.

Democrats have offered $1.3 billion for border security, which Trump calls inadequate.

Trump is negotiating from a weakened position, in part because he just lost his chief of staff and in part because the 115th Congress is in its waning days. Some lawmakers aren't even in Washington, since while they are still technically serving their districts, and new members have already moved into their offices.