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“Stuff occurs.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to brush off what is arguably the most infamous 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 truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a 2021 report had ordered the kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to conclude the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was drugged and cut apart – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a short time, nations were unified in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US imposed sanctions and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the government had strongly criticized the visit. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did the president honor the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, was unaware about the killing – in clear opposition to what his country’s own spy agencies 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, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made little secret of his disdain for the facts – or for the press. Trump has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has pressured established media out of the White House press pool for refusing to use terminology of his choosing, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“many individuals disliked that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the most lethal year on file for journalists in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been tracking this data: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those accountable for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are literally able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Israel, which is accountable for the killing of more than 200 journalists in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The impact on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and securely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its yearly global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the identical as my one for Trump: such events may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.