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“Stuff occurs.” A mere phrase. 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 disregard toward journalists, for journalism – and for the truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the murder of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, MBS – a man whom the CIA found in a recent assessment had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to conclude the homicide – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was drugged and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were unified in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The United States enacted sanctions and visa bans in that year over the murder, although it stopped short of penalizing Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the regime had strongly criticized the visit. But what was on display at the presidential residence was worse than could have been anticipated. Not only did Trump honor Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter the facts – and then pointed fingers at 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 previously. Moreover, the president said: “A lot of people didn’t like 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 little secret of his contempt for the facts – or for the media. Trump has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the question 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 eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has forced veteran news services out of the White House press pool for declining to use terminology of his choosing, and he has gutted funding for essential public media at home and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an environment in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for journalists in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been documenting this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are literally able to escape punishment and so continue to do so.

In no place is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the deaths of over two hundred journalists in the recent period.

Effect on Society

The effect on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our liberty to live freely and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ gathers for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message there is the identical as my message for the president: these things may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.