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“Stuff occurs.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most notorious murder of a reporter of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward journalists, for journalism – and for the facts.

The Context

The US president’s dismissal of the killing of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the CIA concluded in a recent assessment had ordered the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was drugged and cut apart – 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 unified in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US enacted sanctions and visa bans in 2021 over the killing, although it refrained of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the visit. 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. Prince Mohammed, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a new and abject low for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. He has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), taken legal action against news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has pressured established media out of the official briefing group for declining 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 environment in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the United States, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but acceptable (“many individuals didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that that year was the most lethal year on file for the press in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been documenting this data: a ongoing neglect to hold those accountable for journalist killings has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of over two hundred media workers in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The impact on society is deep. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to exist without fear and safely.

This week, CPJ meets for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. The statement there is the identical as my one for Trump: these things may occur. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.