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“Stuff occurs.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most infamous journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for journalism – and for the truth.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist 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 journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to conclude the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old journalist was sedated and cut apart – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US enacted 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 slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was on display at the White House was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did the president honor the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter history – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the truth – or for the press. Trump has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the question about Khashoggi at the media event “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has forced established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use language of his preference, and he has gutted financial support for vital news services at domestically and vital independent media abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is unsurprising 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 information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for journalist killings has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are literally able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

In no place is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the killing of more than 200 journalists in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The effect on society is deep. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and safely.

This week, CPJ meets for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the same as my one for Trump: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.