Vice President JD Vance went hunting for a villain behind $4 gas, and his critics decided the villain lives much closer to home.
Vance’s “tin-pot dictator” line, delivered at a Republican midterm rally in Belgrade, Mont., on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, drew another wave of online reactions, with users asking whether he had just insulted President Donald Trump.
Vance walked the crowd through gas price spikes of 1979, 2001, 2007 and 2022, the year Russia invaded Ukraine. Then he told the crowd, “They skyrocket every time some tin-pot dictator decides to throw a tizzy,” and named no foreign leader at all.
“That Tinpot Signs Your Checks”
Within hours, social media users had aimed the line at the president and seized on the gap in Vance’s timeline.
“Is the tin-pot dictator Donald Trump?” one user asked. Another commenter called it a strange thing to call your boss. A third pointed out that Vance was faulting windmills while the president bragged that oil companies are getting rich off Americans’ gas bills.
One user wrote, “calling your own boss a tinpot dictator is a pretty aggressive opening move for a presidential campaign that’s still two years away” — and another wrote, “That tinpot signs your checks.”
The War Missing From the List
The war with Iran that Trump launched in February choked off global oil flows and pushed pump prices higher. Vance never directly mentioned it in his Belgrade speech.
Trump initially said the fighting would last a matter of weeks. The conflict is now eight months old with no sign of ending, and diesel hit a record high in September. Vance told the same Belgrade audience that boosting domestic energy production is the best way to shield American families from Middle East conflicts.
No October Has Looked Like This
Drivers paid more than $4 a gallon for regular gasoline all the way through October 2026, according to the AAA national average, the first October on record to stay above that line.
Regular gas sold for an average of $4.12 a gallon on Oct. 19, a 40.6% jump from $2.93 a year earlier. Prices swung from $2.67 in January to $4.35 in May, and the 2026 average so far stands at $3.71 a gallon, compared with $2.98 in 2025.
Fighter Jets in a Cold Hangar
The rally ran two hours, with Vance on stage for the final 30 minutes before about 1,500 people in a private hangar at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport. Two F-5 fighter jets belonging to NASA administrator Jared Isaacman served as decor, part of his private “Ghost Squadron” aerobatic fleet; some observers wrongly claimed online that the planes were government property. The north-facing hangar doors stood open, and the temperature at the start was 35 degrees.
Vance addressed what he called the undecided voters in the room and said he understood the complaint that gas costs too much. More work remained on inflation, he added, blaming former President Joe Biden, even as inflation rises. The Democrats’ solution to this problem, Vance said, is to whine and build windmills. He sold the administration’s record on tax cuts for working people, no taxes on tips, overtime or Social Security, and cheaper prescription drugs.
Republican Aaron Flint is running in a statistical tie with Democrat Sam Forstag in Montana’s Western U.S. House District. Republican Kurt Alme leads a four-way race to replace Sen. Steve Daines but has yet to crack 50% in polling. Republicans are fighting to hold Congress on Nov. 3, with the national average for gas still above $4 a gallon.