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“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most notorious 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 facts.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a 2021 report had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to conclude the murder – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the late Khashoggi was drugged and dismembered – was signed off at the highest levels. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed sanctions and travel restrictions in that year over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Critics of the regime had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was on display at the presidential residence was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president honor Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s spy agencies concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject point for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the truth – or for the media. Trump has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), sued media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has pressured established media out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language of his choosing, and he has gutted financial support for essential public media at domestically and crucial free press internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the deadliest year on record for journalists in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this information: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are actually able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the deaths of over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The impact on the public is deep. 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.

This week, CPJ meets for its annual global journalism honors. My message at the event is the same as my message for Trump: such events may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.