Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump stood before thousands of supporters in Mississippi on Friday night, squinted and pointed, and told them he was seeing something that was not actually happening.

Trump criticized CNN at length at his campaign rally in Tupelo. Then he gestured toward the back of BancorpSouth Arena and informed the crowd that he had just seen the light on CNN's camera go out.

"Their light just went off. See? Look. Their light was on -- they just turned it off," he said.

When the light is on, he explained, "that means you're live." CNN had stopped broadcasting live, he said, because it didn't want to air his scathing criticism.

He made up this whole story.