Trump's Casual Remarks on Khashoggi Killing Signals a Disturbing Development.

“Incidents take place.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for the US president to effectively dismiss what is arguably the most infamous murder of a reporter 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.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the killing of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a media briefing with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence found in a recent assessment had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the journalist in 2018. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the only ones to conclude the murder – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the late journalist was drugged and cut apart – was signed off at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached similar conclusions.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, governments were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The US imposed sanctions and visa bans in 2021 over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

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 honor the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter the facts – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in direct contradiction to what his country’s own intelligence services concluded previously. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals didn’t like that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a new and abject point for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his disdain for the truth – or for the press. Trump has defamed journalists (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his connection with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has forced established media out of the White House press pool for refusing to use terminology of his preference, and he has gutted financial support for essential public media at home and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

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 unimportant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“many individuals disliked that person”).

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

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

Effect on Society

The impact on society is profound. Attacks on journalists are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are violations of our rights to know and on our freedom to live freely and securely.

This week, CPJ gathers for its annual global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the identical as my one for Trump: such events may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.