Donald Trump gave the nation yet more reasons to be frightened of his leadership in a speech to the military on Monday afternoon. Speaking at Central Command headquarters in Florida, Trump obsessively talked about all the “beautiful new equipment” he’d be providing the military and suggested he would continue to favor lawmakers who endorsed him over ones who didn’t. But when he got to the subject of terrorism, Trump was downright detached from reality.

”Radical Islamic terrorists are determined to strike our homeland as they did on 9/11, as they did from Boston to Orlando to San Bernardino, and all across Europe,” he said—ignoring the fact that none of those attacks were carried out by people from the countries named in his travel ban. “All over Europe it’s happening.”

It's gotten to a point where it's not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it. They have their reasons and you understand that.

Yes, that’s right. The press is covering up major terror attacks, and somehow succeeding at that in the age of social media.

But the really scary part of that statement is that “they have their reasons and you understand that.” Trump is basically painting the media as an enemy of the United States and a friend to terrorists here, and he’s trying to enlist members of the military—to whom he has just promised “beautiful new equipment”—as his confidants, the people who, like him, understand that the media is the enemy.

America’s laws might be strong enough to keep Donald Trump from becoming a true authoritarian dictator. But the more he talks, the more clear it is that that’s what he wants to be. And he’s angry at the laws and the courts that stand in his way and the media that reports on his lies.