US president Donald Trump pauses after delivering remarks on citizenship and the census in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, on 11 July 2019

Donald Trump‘s former aide Sebastian Gorka was involved in a scuffle with members of the press in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday as a host of right-wing commentators congregated to attend the president’s Social Media Summit.

Despite not inviting any representatives from Twitter to the event, Mr Trump used the platform to attack Republican former House speaker Paul Ryan over comments he made about the president in a new book and to lay into Facebook Libra and other cryptocurrencies, which he said were “not money” but should be subjected to banking regulations.

The day unfolded against the backdrop of a major defeat for Mr Trump, who abandoned plans to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 census in favour of ordering federal agencies to turn over their data on the matter with a view to mining it for information.

A federal appeals court meanwhile seemed inclined Friday to side with a House committee seeking some of Mr Trump’s financial records as part of an investigation, a disclosure he is fighting.

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard more than two hours of arguments in the case Friday, but the judges gave no indication when they would rule.

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It seemed that at least two of the judges were inclined to side with the Democratic-led House committee, which in April issued a subpoena for records from Mazars USA, which has provided accounting services to Mr Trump. A lower court previously ordered the records turned over, but the president called the decision “crazy” and his lawyers appealed.

The case is one of several working its way through courts in which Mr Trump is fighting with Congress over records.

Earlier this month, the House Ways and Means Committee sued the Trump administration over access to the president’s tax returns. And in a case in New York, Trump sued to prevent Deutsche Bank and Capital One from complying with House subpoenas for banking and financial records. A judge ruled against him, and Mr Trump is appealing.

The president has argued that House Committee on Oversight and Reform seeking the records from Mazars is out to get him and lacks a legitimate “legislative purpose” for its request. His lawyers have argued that congressional investigations are valid only if there is legislation that might result from them.

On Friday, Judge Patricia Millett told Trump lawyer William Consovoy at one point that he was suggesting that the president was “absolutely immune from any oversight.” And her colleague, Judge David Tatel, told Consovoy that what the House is seeking is “just financial disclosure which presidents for years have been doing.” Tatel was appointed by President Bill Clinton and Millett by President Barack Obama.