--- source/configure.ac
+++ source/configure.ac
@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@
 #AC_CHECK_PROG(STRIP, strip, strip, true)
 
 # TODO(ICU-20301): Remove fallback to Python 2.
-AC_CHECK_PROGS(PYTHON, python3 "py -3" python "py")
+PYTHON=
 AC_SUBST(PYTHON)
 
 # Check for the platform make