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“Things happen.” Just two words. That was enough for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is probably the most infamous journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward the press, for the media – and for the truth.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

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

International Response

For a short time, nations were unified in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The US enacted sanctions and visa bans in that year over the killing, although it stopped short of sanctioning the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had strongly criticized the visit. But what was on display at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did the president honor Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter history – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in clear opposition to what his nation’s intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a fresh and shameful point for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. Trump has smeared reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the question 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 the convicted criminal), sued news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has forced veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use terminology of his choosing, and he has slashed financial support for essential public media at home and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“many individuals didn’t like that person”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the deadliest year on record for the press in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been documenting this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has established a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The effect on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists 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 securely.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its yearly global journalism honors. My message at the event is the identical as my one for the president: these things may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.