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“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That was enough for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most infamous journalist killing of the last decade – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for journalists, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a 2021 report had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (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 Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, governments were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States imposed sanctions and visa bans in that year over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter the facts – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, was unaware about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a fresh and shameful point for a president who has made little secret of his disdain for the truth – or for the press. He has defamed reporters (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated 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), sued news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has pressured established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at home and crucial free press internationally.

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 unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the deadliest year on file for journalists in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this information: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are literally able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Israel, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The impact on society is deep. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our freedom to live freely and safely.

This week, CPJ meets for its yearly global journalism honors. The statement there is the identical as my message for Trump: these things may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.