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“Things happen.” Just two words. That was enough for Donald Trump to brush off what is arguably the most notorious journalist killing of the last decade – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for the press, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

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

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the murder – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was sedated 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, nations were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US enacted penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the killing, although it refrained of sanctioning the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Opponents of the regime had roundly condemned the visit. But what was evident at the presidential residence was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did the president honor Prince Mohammed but he seemed to alter the facts – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. Prince Mohammed, Trump asserted when asked, was unaware about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a new and abject point for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the media. Trump has defamed journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), sued news outlets for large amounts of money in vexatious law suits, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has forced established media out of the official briefing group for declining to use terminology of his preference, and he has slashed financial support for vital news services at domestically and vital independent media abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the deadliest year on record for journalists in the more than 30 years the press freedom organization has been documenting this data: a ongoing neglect to hold those responsible for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are literally able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the killing of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The effect on society is deep. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and safely.

On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists gathers for its annual global journalism honors. My message at the event is the same as my message for Trump: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.