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“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is arguably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward the press, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to conclude the murder – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the late Khashoggi was drugged 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 short time, nations were unified in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted sanctions and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the regime had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did the president fete the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter the facts – and then blamed the deceased. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his country’s own spy agencies determined four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a new and abject low for a leader who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the press. Trump has smeared reporters (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued media organizations for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to be shut down.

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

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an environment in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“many individuals disliked that person”).

It is no surprise that that year was the most lethal 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 hold those accountable for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are literally able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the deaths of over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The effect on society is profound. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and safely.

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