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“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is arguably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for journalists, for the media – and for the facts.

Background Details

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 CIA found in a recent assessment had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the journalist in that year. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to conclude the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was drugged and cut apart – 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 criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States imposed penalties and visa bans in 2021 over the killing, although it stopped short of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation 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

Critics of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter the facts – and then blamed the deceased. Prince Mohammed, Trump asserted when asked, was unaware about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals disliked 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 leader who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the truth – or for the press. Trump has defamed reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced 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 be shut down.

He has pressured established media out of the official briefing group for declining to use language of his preference, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at domestically and crucial free press abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an environment in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on record for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for journalist killings has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the deaths of more than 200 journalists in the recent period.

Societal Impact

The impact on the public is profound. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message there is the same as my one for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.