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“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is arguably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for journalists, for journalism – and for the facts.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissive attitude 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 US intelligence found in a 2021 report had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was drugged and dismembered – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a short time, governments were unified in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US enacted penalties and visa bans in that year over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Critics of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, he asserted when asked, was unaware about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This represents a new and abject low for a leader who has made little secret of his disdain for the truth – or for the press. He has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose reporter 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 relationship with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), sued media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets 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 preference, and he has slashed funding for vital news services at home and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has created an atmosphere in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that that year was the deadliest year on file for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has created a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are literally able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The effect on the public is profound. 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 live freely and securely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the same as my one for the president: such events may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.