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“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward journalists, for the media – and for the truth.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissal of the murder of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the murder – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the late Khashoggi was drugged and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were in agreement in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US enacted penalties and visa bans in 2021 over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the visit. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies determined previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a new and abject point for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. He has defamed journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the question about Khashoggi at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has forced veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use language of his choosing, and he has gutted financial support for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an environment in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on file for journalists in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been tracking this data: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for reporter murders has established a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

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

Societal Impact

The impact on society is profound. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to exist without fear and safely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its annual International Press Freedom awards. My message there is the identical as my one for Trump: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.