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“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is probably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for journalists, for journalism – and for the truth.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissal of the murder of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a 2021 report had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was signed off at the highest levels. An investigation led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, 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 stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip 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 Trump honor the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals 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 low for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. He has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), sued media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has forced veteran news services out of the White House press pool for declining to use language of his choosing, and he has slashed financial support for essential public media at home and vital independent media internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered 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 (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals disliked that person”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the most lethal year on file for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this information: a ongoing neglect to hold those responsible for journalist killings has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are literally able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this more evident than in Israel, which is accountable for the killing of over two hundred media workers in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The impact on society is deep. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and securely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its annual International Press Freedom awards. My message there is the same as my one for the president: these things may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.