Border Patrol agents were stunned and angered by the comments, which both claimed without evidence that migrants were run over and whipped, and at the same time cast a shadow over the investigation.

“Would you go to work and do your best knowing that if you do your boss is going to ‘make you pay’?” one agent told Fox News. “I’m dumbfounded and don’t know what to say.”

The agent asked, “Is the president threatening to throw us in prison?”

Another said: “I see the administration wants to fry our agents. He just started a war with Border Patrol.”