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“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for the US president 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 truth.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a recent assessment had ordered the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the late journalist was drugged and cut apart – was signed off at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

Global Reactions

For a short time, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US imposed sanctions and visa bans in 2021 over the murder, although it stopped short of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom 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

Opponents of the regime had roundly condemned the visit. 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 effectively rewrote the facts – 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 intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a new and abject low for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. He has smeared reporters (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the question about Khashoggi at the media event “fake news”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” 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 media groups he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has forced established media out of the official briefing group for refusing to use language of his choosing, and he has gutted financial support for essential public media at home and vital independent media internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an environment in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“many individuals disliked that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the most lethal year on file for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been tracking this information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

In no place is this more evident than in Israel, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The effect on the public is deep. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to exist without fear and securely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its annual global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the same as my message for Trump: these things may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.