Jonathan Lemire, the White House correspondent for the Associated Press, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Trump enacted the policy — which he later blamed on Democrats — to intentionally ignite another political firestorm.

“In our reporting, he was telling people around him that he thought this would be a good cultural war, kind of victory here, akin to the NFL players kneeling for the national anthem,” Lemire said.

The president and attorney general Jeff Sessions admitted they hoped the detained children would force Democrats to agree to fund a border wall, along with other Trump immigration priorities, but instead he signed an executive order to end the separations.

“We had days of the president saying this couldn’t be done this way, that he would say, incorrectly, that it couldn’t be done by executive order, that it had to by Congress,” Lemire said. “It seemed like the White House was trying to pressure Capitol Hill so they would come up with some sort of solution so the president was not seen as having to reverse himself on this.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/white-house-reporter-reveals-trump-thought-jailing-babies-culture-war-win-like-nfl-bashing/