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“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is probably the most notorious journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for journalists, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence found in a recent assessment had ordered the abduction and murder of the journalist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies 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 signed off at the highest levels. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, governments were unified in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed sanctions and visa bans in that year over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was on display at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been anticipated. 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, was unaware about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject point for a president who has made little secret of his disdain for the facts – or for the press. He has defamed journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded 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 media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has forced veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use terminology of his preference, and he has gutted financial support for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“a lot of people didn’t like 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 ongoing neglect to hold those responsible for journalist killings has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of over two hundred media workers in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The impact on the public is deep. 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, CPJ gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. The statement at the event is the same as my message for the president: these things may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.