Vice President JD Vance blamed high gas prices on “tin-pot dictators” during an energy speech Monday, giving online critics an opening to turn the description on President Donald Trump .

At the midterms rally in Belgrade, Montana, Vance acknowledged voters’ concerns about rising fuel costs and gave examples of previous price hikes.

“Now you will hear — and I want to speak a little bit to the undecided voters out there — you will hear many say that gas prices are too high, that there’s still so much work to do on correcting the terrible Biden inflation, the highest inflation that we saw in 50 years in our country, and I understand that. I agree with it,” Vance told the crowd.

He argued that historical price spikes were driven by international conflicts, pointing to global crises over past decades to illustrate his point.

“Remember in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, and gas prices skyrocketed — they skyrocketed, by the way, far higher than they are today,” Vance said.…