WASHINGTON — Shelv­ing his objec­tions, Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump has signed a $2 tril­lion-plus COVID-19 and annu­al fed­er­al spend­ing pack­age pro­vid­ing relief for mil­lions of Amer­i­cans, even as Con­gress returns to con­front the White House on remain­ing pri­or­i­ties in a rare end-of-ses­sion showdown.

Trump appears to have accom­plished lit­tle, if any­thing, from the days of dra­ma over his refusal to accept the sweep­ing bipar­ti­san deal. While the president’s demands for larg­er $2,000 pan­dem­ic relief checks seem des­tined to fail, his push served up a polit­i­cal oppor­tu­ni­ty for Democ­rats, who sup­port the larg­er stipends and are forc­ing Trump’s Repub­li­can allies into a tough spot.

On Mon­day, the Demo­c­ra­t­ic-led House is set to vote to boost the $600 pay­ments to $2,000, send­ing a new bill to the Sen­ate. There, Repub­li­cans have the major­i­ty but reject more spend­ing and are like­ly to defeat the effort.

The show­down offers more sym­bol than sub­stance, and it’s not expect­ed to alter the mas­sive pack­age that Trump reluc­tant­ly signed into law late Sun­day after golf­ing at his Flori­da club. The $900 bil­lion in COVID aid and $1.4 tril­lion to fund gov­ern­ment agen­cies will deliv­er long-sought cash to busi­ness­es and indi­vid­u­als and avert a fed­er­al gov­ern­ment shut­down that oth­er­wise would have start­ed Tuesday.

Togeth­er with votes Mon­day and Tues­day to over­ride Trump’s veto of a sweep­ing defense bill, the action is per­haps the last stand­off of the president’s final days in office as he impos­es fresh demands and dis­putes the results of the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. The new Con­gress is set to be sworn in Sunday.

House Speak­er Nan­cy Pelosi, D‑Calif., seized on the divide between the pres­i­dent and his par­ty, urg­ing Trump to put pres­sure on his Sen­ate GOP allies to pass the bill.

“The Pres­i­dent must imme­di­ate­ly call on Con­gres­sion­al Repub­li­cans to end their obstruc­tion and to join him and Democ­rats in sup­port of our stand-alone leg­is­la­tion to increase direct pay­ment checks to $2,000,” Pelosi said in a tweet.

Trump’s sud­den deci­sion to sign the bill came as he faced esca­lat­ing crit­i­cism from law­mak­ers on all sides over his eleventh-hour demands. The bipar­ti­san bill nego­ti­at­ed by Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Steven Mnuchin had already passed the House and Sen­ate by wide mar­gins. Law­mak­ers had thought they had Trump’s bless­ing after months of nego­ti­a­tions with his administration.

The president’s defi­ant refusal to act, pub­li­cized with a heat­ed video he tweet­ed just before the Christ­mas hol­i­day, sparked chaos, a lapse in unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits for mil­lions and the threat of a gov­ern­ment shut­down in the midst of a pan­dem­ic. It was anoth­er cri­sis of his own mak­ing, resolved when he ulti­mate­ly signed the bill into law.

In his state­ment about the sign­ing, Trump repeat­ed his frus­tra­tions with the COVID-19 relief bill for pro­vid­ing only $600 checks to most Amer­i­cans and com­plained about what he con­sid­ered unnec­es­sary spend­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly on for­eign aid.

While the pres­i­dent insist­ed he would send Con­gress “a red­lined ver­sion” with spend­ing items he wants removed, those are mere­ly sug­ges­tions to Con­gress. The bill, as signed, would not nec­es­sar­i­ly be changed.

Democ­rats, who have the major­i­ty in the House, “will reject any rescis­sions” sub­mit­ted by the pres­i­dent, said Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, chair of the Appro­pri­a­tions Committee.

For now, the admin­is­tra­tion can only begin work send­ing out the $600 payments.

Repub­li­can Rep. Mo Brooks of Alaba­ma, a con­ser­v­a­tive who sup­port­ed Trump’s extra­or­di­nary and futile chal­lenge of the elec­tion results, count­ed him­self Mon­day among the oppo­nents of a more gen­er­ous relief pack­age and Trump’s call for high­er payments.

“It’s mon­ey we don’t have, we have to bor­row to get and we can’t afford to pay back,” he said on “Fox and Friends.”

But Repub­li­can Rep. Elise Ste­fanik of New York said she was open to the idea of $2,000 checks. “Many Amer­i­cans are in dire need of relief,” she said on the show.

Alto­geth­er, Repub­li­cans and Democ­rats alike swift­ly wel­comed Trump’s deci­sion to sign the bill into law.

“The com­pro­mise bill is not per­fect, but it will do an enor­mous amount of good for strug­gling Ken­tuck­ians and Amer­i­cans across the coun­try who need help now,” said Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell, R‑Ky. “I thank the Pres­i­dent for sign­ing this relief into law.”

Oth­ers slammed Trump’s delay in turn­ing the bill into law. In a tweet, Rep. Ger­ry Con­nol­ly, D‑Va., accused Trump of hav­ing “played Russ­ian roulette with Amer­i­can lives. A famil­iar and com­fort­able place for him.”

Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic leader Chuck Schumer, D‑N.Y., said he would offer Trump’s pro­pos­al for $2,000 checks for a vote in Sen­ate — putting Repub­li­cans on the spot.

“The House will pass a bill to give Amer­i­cans $2,000 checks,” Schumer tweet­ed. “Then I will move to pass it in the Sen­ate.” He said no Democ­rats will object. “Will Sen­ate Republicans?”

Democ­rats are promis­ing more aid to come once Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden takes office, but Repub­li­cans are sig­nal­ing a wait-and-see approach.

In the face of grow­ing eco­nom­ic hard­ship, spread­ing dis­ease and a loom­ing shut­down, law­mak­ers spent Sun­day urg­ing Trump to sign the leg­is­la­tion imme­di­ate­ly, then have Con­gress fol­low up with addi­tion­al aid. Aside from unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits and relief pay­ments to fam­i­lies, mon­ey for vac­cine dis­tri­b­u­tion, busi­ness­es and more was on the line. Pro­tec­tions against evic­tions also hung in the balance.

Repub­li­can Sen. Pat Toomey of Penn­syl­va­nia said he under­stood that Trump “wants to be remem­bered for advo­cat­ing for big checks, but the dan­ger is he’ll be remem­bered for chaos and mis­ery and errat­ic behav­ior if he allows this to expire.”

Repub­li­can Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illi­nois said too much is at stake for Trump to “play this old switcheroo game.”

“I don’t get the point,” he said. “I don’t under­stand what’s being done, why, unless it’s just to cre­ate chaos and show pow­er and be upset because you lost the election.”

Colvin report­ed from West Palm Beach, Florida.