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“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for the US president to effectively dismiss what is probably 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 the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the murder of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a 2021 report had ordered the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old journalist was drugged and cut apart – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a short time, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States 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 leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was on display at the White House was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a new and abject point for a president who has made little secret of his disdain for the facts – or for the press. He has smeared reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the question about Khashoggi at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), sued news outlets for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

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

Broader Implications

All of that has created an atmosphere in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“many individuals disliked that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the deadliest year on file for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been tracking this information: a ongoing neglect to hold those accountable for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the deaths of over two hundred media workers in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The impact on the public is profound. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our liberty to live freely and safely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its annual International Press Freedom awards. The statement there is the identical as my message for the president: these things may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.