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“Stuff occurs.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most infamous 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 truth.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA concluded in a recent assessment had ordered the abduction and murder of the journalist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and dismembered – was signed off at the highest levels. An inquiry led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were unified in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States enacted penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was on display at the presidential residence was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did the president fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. Prince Mohammed, he asserted when asked, was unaware about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Established Conduct

This marks a new and abject point for a president who has made little secret of his disdain for the truth – or for the media. He has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the question about Khashoggi at the media event “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 the convicted criminal), taken legal action against news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for declining to use terminology of his preference, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at home and vital independent media abroad.

Wider Consequences

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

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on record for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for reporter murders has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually 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 deaths of over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The effect on the public is profound. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to live freely and safely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the identical as my one for the president: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.