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“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most notorious journalist killing 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 dismissal of the killing of prominent journalist 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 abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the murder – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and cut apart – was approved at the top echelons. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were unified in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States imposed penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the murder, although it refrained of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Opponents of the government had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was on display at the White House was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump honor the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter history – and then blamed the victim. Prince Mohammed, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a fresh and shameful point for a leader who has made little secret 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 Saudi press conference “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 media organizations for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he disapproves of to be shut down.

He has forced established media out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language of his preference, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at domestically and crucial free press internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“many individuals didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the most lethal year on file for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been documenting this data: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has established 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 clearer than in Israel, which is accountable for the deaths of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The effect on the public is profound. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our entitlement to information and on our liberty to exist without fear and securely.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message at the event is the same as my one for the president: such events may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.