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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 journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissal of the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence concluded in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to conclude the murder – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was sedated and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, governments were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States imposed penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the killing, although it stopped short of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

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 seemed to alter history – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, he asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies concluded previously. Moreover, Trump 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 no attempt to hide of his disdain for the truth – or for the media. He has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose reporter asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the media event “fake news”), berated them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

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

Broader Implications

All of that has created an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“many individuals didn’t like that person”).

It is no surprise that that year 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 data: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has created a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are actually able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Israel, which is responsible for the killing of more than 200 media workers in the recent period.

Societal Impact

The effect on the public is profound. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our freedom to live freely and safely.

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