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“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is arguably the most notorious journalist killing of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for the media – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to conclude the murder – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was drugged and cut apart – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a short time, governments were unified in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US imposed penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it refrained of sanctioning the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was on display at the presidential residence was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump honor the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Established Conduct

This represents a new and abject point for a leader who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the media. Trump has defamed journalists (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), sued media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he disapproves of to be shut down.

He has pressured established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use language of his preference, and he has slashed financial support for essential public media at domestically and crucial free press internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an environment in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is no surprise that that year 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 reporter murders has established a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are literally 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 more than 200 journalists in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The impact on the public is profound. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its annual International Press Freedom awards. The statement there is the identical as my message for the president: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.