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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 notorious murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward the press, for the media – and for the facts.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence found in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to determine the murder – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was drugged and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, nations were in agreement in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States enacted penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the killing, although it refrained of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the regime had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump honor the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote history – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. He has defamed journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

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

Broader Implications

All of that has created an environment in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“many individuals disliked that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the most lethal 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 hold those responsible for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are actually able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

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

Societal Impact

The impact on the public is deep. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its yearly global journalism honors. My message at the event is the identical as my message for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.