Mr President don’t treat me like a little kid...

It’s not something you’ll see very often — an elected official pointing her finger in the face of the President of the United States.

But that’s exactly what happened in Phoenix, when President Barack Obama arrived there as part of a post-State of the Union western trip.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer confronted Obama on the tarmac shortly after he stepped off Air Force One, engaging in a heated exchange with the president.

Asked later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: “He was a little disturbed about my book.”

Brewer recently published a book, Scorpions for Breakfast, something of a memoir of her years growing up, and defends her signing of Arizona’s controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes.

Obama was objecting to Brewer’s description of a meeting he and Brewer had at the White House, where she described Obama as lecturing her like “a little kid in a classroom”.

She said that Obama complained on the tarmac that she described him as not treating her cordially.

“I said I was sorry that he felt that way. Anyway, we’re glad he’s here.”