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“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is probably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for the press, for the media – and for the truth.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the CIA concluded in a 2021 report had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the murder – which took place 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 penalties and visa bans in 2021 over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the regime had strongly criticized the visit. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president honor the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then pointed fingers at the victim. Prince Mohammed, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Established Conduct

This represents a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made little secret of his disdain for the truth – or for the press. He has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has forced veteran news services out of the White House press pool for declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has slashed financial support for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that that year was the deadliest year on file for the press in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this data: a persistent failure to hold those responsible for journalist killings has established a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are literally able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The effect on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our liberty to exist without fear and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its yearly global journalism honors. The statement there is the identical as my message for Trump: such events may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.