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“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is probably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for journalists, for the media – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA concluded in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the journalist in that year. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to conclude the murder – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old journalist was drugged and cut apart – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a short time, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States imposed penalties and visa bans in that year over the murder, although it stopped short of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Critics of the government had strongly criticized the visit. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump honor the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote history – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject point for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. Trump has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to be shut down.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language of his preference, and he has gutted financial support for vital news services at home and vital independent media abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an environment in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for journalists in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been documenting this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for journalist killings has created a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are literally able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the killing of more than 200 journalists in the past two years.

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 rights to know and on our liberty to exist without fear and securely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. The statement at the event is the identical as my message for the president: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.