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“Things happen.” Just two words. That was enough for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most notorious journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for the press, for journalism – and for the facts.

The Context

The US president’s dismissal of the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the CIA concluded in a recent assessment had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old journalist was drugged and cut apart – was signed off at the highest levels. An inquiry led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States imposed penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it refrained of sanctioning the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was on display at the White House was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump fete the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter the facts – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject point for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the media. He has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), scolded them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use terminology of his choosing, and he has gutted financial support for vital news services at home and crucial free press internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals disliked that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the deadliest year on record for journalists in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been tracking this information: a ongoing neglect to hold those accountable for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

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

Effect on Society

The impact on society is deep. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our rights to know and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message there is the same as my message for the president: such events may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.