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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 past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward the press, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the US intelligence found in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (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 Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was drugged and cut apart – was approved at the top echelons. An inquiry led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a short time, nations were in agreement in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US imposed penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the presidential residence was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then blamed the deceased. The crown prince, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. Trump has defamed reporters (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the question about the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has forced established media out of the official briefing group for declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has slashed financial support for vital news services at home and crucial free press abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters 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 didn’t like that person”).

It is no surprise that that year was the most lethal year on file for the press in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this information: a ongoing neglect to hold those responsible for reporter murders has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this more evident than in Israel, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred media workers in the recent period.

Societal Impact

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 exist without fear and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its annual global journalism honors. My message there is the same as my message for the president: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.