President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE on Friday backed Sebastian Gorka Sebastian Lukacs GorkaSunday shows preview: Trump, lawmakers weigh in on COVID-19, masks and school reopenings amid virus surge Trump taps Gorka for national security advisory board Sunday shows preview: Coronavirus poses questions about school safety; Trump commutes Roger Stone sentence MORE after the former White House adviser confronted a reporter in the Rose Garden a day earlier.

The president weighed in on the commotion a day after Gorka clashed with Playboy correspondent Brian Karem. Gorka got into a shouting match with the journalist, calling him a "punk" and accusing him of making a threat.

"@SebGorka Wins Big, No Contest!" Trump tweeted.

Trump has previously joked about physical attacks on reporters, including joking at a campaign rally last year that Rep. Greg Gianforte Gregory Richard GianfortePence seeks to boost Daines in critical Montana Senate race On The Trail: How Nancy Pelosi could improbably become president Supreme Court denies push to add Green Party candidates to Montana ballot MORE (R-Mont.) was aided in the polls because he body-slammed a reporter.

ADVERTISEMENT

Thursday's kerfuffle took place after Trump announced in the Rose Garden that he was dropping his bid to add a citizenship question to the census. Several conservative social media personalities were seated in the Rose Garden to hear Trump's announcement, while credentialed media stood behind rope lines in the back.

The mood turned confrontational after the president returned inside, flanked by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Wilbur Louis RossTrump admin asks Supreme Court to fast-track excluding people in U.S. illegally from census Trump 'very happy' to allow TikTok to operate in US if security concerns resolved TikTok, WeChat to be banned Sunday from US app stores MORE and Attorney General William Barr Bill BarrHillicon Valley: Subpoenas for Facebook, Google and Twitter on the cards | Wray rebuffs mail-in voting conspiracies | Reps. raise mass surveillance concerns Bipartisan representatives demand answers on expired surveillance programs YouTube to battle mail-in voting misinformation with info panel on videos MORE.

Gorka stormed over to engage with Karem, and the two got into a heated back-and-forth. Other conservative personalities looked on and began recording on their phones, and a few broke into a chant of "Gorka!" as the encounter played out.

GRAPHIC LANGUAGE WARNING - Former White House aide Sebastian Gorka gets in tiff with media, accusing journalist of 'threatening' him in the Rose Garden, after Trump drops census citizenship question at a news conference pic.twitter.com/91zNJD8gkj — Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 11, 2019

Gorka later spoke to reporters nearby and was asked why he blocks so many people on Twitter.

"I block whoever I want to. I block 16,000 people," he told Steve Herman of Voice of America. "Because they’re asshats, that’s why."

Gorka was among the roughly 200 conservatives invited to attend Trump's social media summit at the White House on Thursday. The crowd included supporters of the president as well as right-wing voices known to have spread conspiracy theories.