US President Barack Obama has called Kanye West a "Jackass" for interrupting the acceptance speech of singer Taylor Swift at the Video Music Awards at the weekend.

"I thought it was inappropriate, it's like she's getting an award, why are you butting in?" he said to a reporter before a press conference, adding, "The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person, she's getting her award, what's he doing up there?"

"He's a jackass," thundered the most powerful man in the world to CNBC reporter John Harwood.

Click here to read of Quietus ed. John Doran's encounter with Kanye West. Perhaps Barack Obama will make our Viking Scribe Secretary for Culture? But does the President like Electric Wizard? These are the questions of our Times.