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“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That was enough for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence found in a recent assessment had ordered the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were unified in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US enacted penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the murder, although it stopped short of sanctioning the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Critics of the government had strongly criticized the visit. But what was on display at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president honor Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president 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 marks a new and abject point for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the truth – or for the media. He has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has forced 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 atmosphere in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the US, 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 gentleman”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for journalists in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been documenting this information: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has created a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are literally able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the recent period.

Societal Impact

The impact on the public is profound. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and securely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message there is the same as my message for Trump: such events may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.