🔗 Share this article

“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That was enough for Donald Trump to brush off 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 journalism – and for the facts.

Background Details

The American leader’s dismissal of the killing of prominent journalist the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi leader, MBS – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had orchestrated the kidnap and killing of the journalist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was sedated and dismembered – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States imposed penalties and travel restrictions in 2021 over the murder, although it refrained of sanctioning the crown prince 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 rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

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

Pattern of Behavior

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a president who has made little secret of his contempt for the truth – or for the media. Trump has smeared reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist 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 relationship with the convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued media organizations for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the official briefing group for declining to use language of his choosing, and he has gutted financial support for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media abroad.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the US, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the most lethal year on record for journalists in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been tracking this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those accountable for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Israel, which is accountable for the deaths of more than 200 media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The effect on the public is deep. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our freedom to live freely and securely.

On Thursday, CPJ gathers for its annual International Press Freedom awards. The statement at the event is the same as my message for Trump: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.