Bannon purposely timed travel ban for maximum protests -- but the White House lost control of narrative

The massive protests that accompanied President Donald Trump's travel ban was at least partially by design, according to a new report -- but the White House was unable to control the script.

A Bloomberg profile of Stephen Miller, a senior advisor to the president, reported that Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, timed the controversial order to provoke protests.

The report cites a Trump administration source who claimed Bannon intentionally sprung the executive order for a Friday afternoon to ensure opponents would have all weekend to stage huge protests and hopefully galvanize the president's supporters.

However, that's not exactly what happened.

While thousands of demonstrators did flock to airports and hit the streets to protest the ban against travelers from certain majority Muslim nations, law enforcement officials were confused about what the hastily written order actually did and were unsure how to enforce it.

A federal appeals court unanimously upheld a temporary restraining order Feb. 9 blocking the order's enforcement, and White House officials -- presumably including Miller and Bannon -- are rewriting it in hopes of evading legal challenges.