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“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward journalists, for journalism – and for the truth.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to determine the murder – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was drugged and cut apart – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

Global Reactions

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

Presidential Comments

Critics of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, he asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This marks a new and abject low for a leader who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. Trump has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “false information”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against news outlets for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has forced established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at home and vital independent media internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an environment in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for the press in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been documenting this information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for journalist killings has created a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are literally able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Israel, which is responsible for the killing of more than 200 journalists in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The impact on society is profound. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our liberty to live freely and securely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. The statement at the event is the identical as my one for Trump: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.