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“Stuff occurs.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is probably the most infamous journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward the press, for journalism – and for the facts.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had ordered the kidnap and killing of the journalist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was drugged and dismembered – was signed off at the highest levels. An inquiry led by former UN expert, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were unified in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US enacted penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Critics of the government had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was more alarming than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump fete the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, the president 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 point for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the truth – or for the press. Trump has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the question about the journalist at the media event “fake news”), scolded them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to be shut down.

He has pressured established media out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language of his choosing, and he has gutted financial support for essential public media at home and vital independent media abroad.

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 targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“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 journalists in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been documenting this data: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are literally able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the killing of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Effect on Society

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 rights to know and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its annual International Press Freedom awards. My message there is the same as my one for Trump: such events may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.