Donald Trump’s recent performance at a press conference alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin sparked outrage from across the American political spectrum, as Trump sided with the U.S.’s long-standing adversary by dismissing allegations of Russian cyber-meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

While it was somewhat chilling to watch an American president stand with a hostile autocrat against his own intelligence agencies, the press conference was simply the latest instance of Trump’s trademark propensity for creating his own reality in defiance of facts and insisting that others join him in sharing the delusion.