diff -u b/core/modules/views/src/ViewExecutable.php b/core/modules/views/src/ViewExecutable.php
--- b/core/modules/views/src/ViewExecutable.php
+++ b/core/modules/views/src/ViewExecutable.php
@@ -769,6 +769,9 @@
    *
    * @return bool
    *   TRUE if the display was correctly set, FALSE otherwise.
+   *
+   * @throws \Drupal\views\InvalidDisplayException
+   *   Thrown when an invalid display ID is passed.
    */
   public function setDisplay($display_id = NULL) {
     // If we have not already initialized the display, do so.
@@ -788,8 +791,7 @@
 
     // Ensure the requested display exists.
     if (!$this->displayHandlers->has($display_id)) {
-      debug(format_string('setDisplay() called with invalid display ID "@display".', ['@display' => $display_id]));
-      return FALSE;
+      throw new InvalidDisplayException("ViewExecutable::setDisplay called with invalid display ID: $display_id");
     }
 
     // Reset if the display has changed. It could be called multiple times for
@@ -799,7 +801,7 @@
 
     // Ensure the requested display exists.
     if (!$this->displayHandlers->has($display_id)) {
-      trigger_error(new FormattableMarkup('setDisplay() called with invalid display ID "@display".', ['@display' => $display_id]));
+      debug(format_string('setDisplay() called with invalid display ID "@display".', ['@display' => $display_id]));
       return FALSE;
     }
 
diff -u b/core/modules/views/tests/src/Kernel/ViewExecutableTest.php b/core/modules/views/tests/src/Kernel/ViewExecutableTest.php
--- b/core/modules/views/tests/src/Kernel/ViewExecutableTest.php
+++ b/core/modules/views/tests/src/Kernel/ViewExecutableTest.php
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 use Drupal\Component\Utility\Xss;
 use Drupal\node\Entity\NodeType;
 use Drupal\views\Entity\View;
+use Drupal\views\InvalidDisplayException;
 use Drupal\views\Views;
 use Drupal\views\ViewExecutable;
 use Drupal\views\ViewExecutableFactory;
@@ -199,8 +200,8 @@
     try {
       $view->setDisplay('invalid');
     }
-    catch (\PHPUnit_Framework_Error $e) {
-      $this->assertEquals('setDisplay() called with invalid display ID "invalid".', $e->getMessage());
+    catch (InvalidDisplayException $e) {
+      $this->assertEquals('ViewExecutable::setDisplay called with invalid display ID: invalid', $e->getMessage());
     }
 
     $this->assertEqual($view->current_display, 'default', 'If setDisplay is called with an invalid display id the default display should be used.');
only in patch2:
unchanged:
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/modules/views/src/InvalidDisplayException.php
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Drupal\views;
+
+/**
+ * Defines an exception thrown when an invalid display ID is used.
+ */
+class InvalidDisplayException extends \Exception {
+
+}