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“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward the press, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the murder of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the CIA concluded in a 2021 report had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to conclude the murder – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was drugged and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, nations were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US enacted penalties and visa bans in that year over the murder, although it stopped short of sanctioning the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter the facts – and then pointed fingers at the victim. Prince Mohammed, he claimed when asked, was unaware about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Established Conduct

This represents a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the facts – or for the press. He has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “false information”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has pressured established media out of the official briefing group for declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has gutted financial support for vital news services at domestically and vital independent media abroad.

Wider Consequences

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

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for journalists in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this data: a persistent failure to hold those accountable for journalist killings 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 clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the deaths of over two hundred media workers in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The effect on the public is profound. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our rights to know and on our liberty to exist without fear and securely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its annual global journalism honors. The statement there is the same as my message for the president: these things may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.