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“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump 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 journalism – and for the facts.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the CIA concluded in a 2021 report had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to determine the murder – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was drugged and cut apart – was signed off at the highest levels. An investigation led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, governments were in agreement in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed sanctions and visa bans in 2021 over the killing, although it refrained of sanctioning the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump fete the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject low for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the media. He has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

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

Wider Consequences

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

It is unsurprising that that year was the deadliest year on record for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this data: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those accountable for journalist killings has established 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 responsible for the killing of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The impact on the public is deep. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our freedom to exist without fear and securely.

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