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“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is arguably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward the press, for journalism – and for the facts.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the journalist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to conclude the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US enacted sanctions and visa bans in that year over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did the president honor the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then pointed fingers at the victim. Prince Mohammed, he asserted when asked, was unaware about the killing – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful point for a leader who has made little secret of his disdain for the truth – or for the press. Trump has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he disapproves of to be shut down.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for declining to use terminology of his preference, and he has gutted financial support for essential public media at domestically and crucial free press abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for journalists in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this data: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has created a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are actually able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Israel, which is responsible for the killing of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The effect on society is profound. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and securely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its yearly global journalism honors. My message at the event is the identical as my message for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.