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“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is probably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for the media – and for the truth.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence found in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

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

Global Reactions

For a short time, governments were unified in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US enacted penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump fete the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own intelligence services determined four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. Trump has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use terminology of his choosing, and he has gutted funding for vital news services at home and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the deadliest year on file for journalists in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been documenting this data: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are literally able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

In no place is this clearer than in Israel, which is accountable for the killing of more than 200 journalists in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The impact on society is profound. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to live freely and securely.

This week, CPJ meets for its annual global journalism honors. The statement there is the same as my message for Trump: such events may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.