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“Stuff occurs.” A mere phrase. That was enough for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably 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 journalism – and for the facts.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a recent assessment had ordered the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist 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 sedated and cut apart – was approved at the top echelons. An inquiry led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US enacted penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the murder, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote history – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in clear opposition to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that person 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 leader who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. He has defamed reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist 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 convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against media organizations for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for declining to use language of his choosing, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people disliked that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the most lethal year on file for the press in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been tracking this information: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for reporter murders has established a environment without consequences in which those who murder reporters are actually able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Israel, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 journalists in the recent period.

Societal Impact

The effect on society is profound. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its annual International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the identical as my message for the president: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.