Taylor Swift calls out Trump administration over Equality Act during VMAs acceptance speech

Pop star included a petition at the end of her video for 'You Need to Calm Down', which now has half a million signatures

Taylor Swift used her acceptance speech at this year's MTV VMAs to call out the White House over its silence on the Equality Act petition for LGBT+ rights.

A call to sign the petition was featured at the end of Swift's video, "You Need to Calm Down", which won the Video of the Year award.

"[The petition] now has half a million signatures, which is five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from the White House," Swift said, pretending to glance at an invisible watch on her wrist.

She also suggested that elected officials against the act should be aware of the number of people who do want it.

"In this video several points were made, so you voting for this video means that you want a world where we're all treated equally under the law," she said.

Other artists to take a political stance at last night's ceremony included French Montana and GLOW star Alison Brie, who made a pro-immigration statement when they presented the award for Best Latin Music Video.

Moroccan-born French Montana said he was proud to present the award as an immigrant, commenting: "I feel like we are the people who make this country, and I feel like I want to be the voice."