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“Things happen.” Just two words. That was enough for the US president to brush off what is probably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the last decade – 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 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 CIA found in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to conclude the murder – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States enacted penalties and visa bans in that year over the killing, although it stopped short of sanctioning the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, was unaware about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Established Conduct

This marks a new and abject point for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. He has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), berated 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 news outlets he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use language of his preference, and he has gutted funding for vital news services at home and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for the press in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been tracking this data: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for reporter murders has created 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 clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

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

On Thursday, CPJ gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. The statement there is the same as my message for Trump: these things may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.