Trump's Casual Remarks on Journalist's Murder Signals a Disturbing Development.

“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most notorious journalist killing of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for journalism – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissal of the murder of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the CIA concluded in a recent assessment had ordered the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to determine the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the late Khashoggi was drugged and cut apart – was signed off at the top echelons. An inquiry led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a short time, nations were unified in their criticism of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed penalties and travel restrictions in that year over the killing, although it refrained of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.

White House Remarks

Critics of the government 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 the Saudi leader but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, he claimed when asked, was unaware about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s intelligence services determined four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the media. He has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “fake news”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), sued news outlets for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the White House press pool for declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has slashed financial support for essential public media at domestically and crucial free press internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the deadliest year on record for journalists in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this information: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for reporter murders has created a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are actually able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

In no place is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the killing of over two hundred media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The impact on society is deep. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are violations of our rights to know and on our liberty to exist without fear and securely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its annual global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the same as my message for the president: such events may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.