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“Things happen.” Just two words. That was enough for Donald Trump to brush off what is arguably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward the press, for journalism – and for the truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA found in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the journalist in that year. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the murder – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was sedated and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were in agreement in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed penalties and visa bans in 2021 over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Critics of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was on display at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump honor the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter the facts – and then blamed the deceased. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in clear opposition to what his country’s own intelligence services 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 represents a new and abject point for a leader who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. He has defamed reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), berated them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued 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 forced established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use terminology of his preference, and he has gutted financial support for vital news services at home and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an atmosphere in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for the press in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this data: a persistent failure to hold those responsible for reporter murders has created a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are literally able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

In no place is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the deaths of over two hundred media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The effect on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our rights to know and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ gathers for its annual global journalism honors. My message at the event is the identical as my one for Trump: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.