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“Stuff occurs.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is probably the most notorious 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 US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence found in a 2021 report had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the late journalist was sedated and cut apart – was approved at the top echelons. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were unified in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted sanctions and visa bans in 2021 over the murder, 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 redemption.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president honor the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, he asserted when asked, was unaware about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made little secret of his disdain for the truth – or for the press. He has smeared reporters (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the question about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated 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 news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has forced veteran news services out of the White House press pool for declining to use terminology of his preference, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at home and crucial free press abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an environment in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, 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 deadliest year on record for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this clearer than in Israel, which is responsible for the killing of more than 200 journalists in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The effect on the public is profound. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our liberty to live freely and securely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its yearly global journalism honors. My message there is the identical as my message for Trump: these things may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.