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“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most infamous journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for journalism – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissal of the killing of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the CIA found in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to conclude the murder – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the late journalist was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An inquiry led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

Global Reactions

For a short time, governments were unified in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted sanctions and travel restrictions in that year over the killing, although it refrained of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the visit. But what was on display at the White House was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump honor the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s spy agencies determined four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject low for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the truth – or for the press. Trump has defamed journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), scolded them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has forced established media out of the official briefing group for refusing to use terminology of his preference, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at home and crucial free press internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for the press in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this data: a ongoing neglect to hold those responsible for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are literally able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

In no place is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 journalists in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The impact on the public is profound. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message there is the same as my one for the president: these things may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.