Uh-Oh. KanyeGate 2009 just got real!

The President of The United States has been caught on tape lighting into Kanye West. TMZ just obtained audio of President Barack Obama referring to the hip-hop heavyweight as “a jackass” in the aftermath of the rapper’s infamous stage-storming during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards 2009 in New York City on Sunday night.

The audio was recorded just before Obama went on camera to do an interview with CNBC on Monday night. Before the interview began, Obama started chatting about Kanye’s antics onstage the night before, saying: “I thought that was really inappropriate,” adding, “He’s a jackass.”

After making the remarks, the Prez became worried the joke would go viral, saying slyly: “Cut the President some slack.” Obama’s Kanye Diss has been making headlines all day, after Nightline correspondent Terry Moran posted a Tweet claiming the President had made an off color remark about West.

Sound off on this, everyone. President Obama on The Kanye-Taylor Affair: On Point or Out of Line?