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

“Things happen.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most infamous journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for journalists, for the media – and for the truth.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissal 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 concluded in a 2021 report had ordered the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the homicide – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the late Khashoggi was sedated and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An inquiry led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached similar conclusions.

International Response

For a brief period, governments were in agreement in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States imposed sanctions and visa bans in 2021 over the murder, although it stopped short of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been gradually restoring itself – and the leader’s trip to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had strongly criticized the visit. But what was evident at the presidential residence was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump honor Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the deceased. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This marks a fresh and shameful point for a president who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the truth – or for the press. He has smeared journalists (he called a news network, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship 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 veteran news services out of the White House press pool for declining to use language of his choosing, and he has slashed financial support for essential public media at domestically and vital independent media internationally.

Wider Consequences

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

It is unsurprising that 2024 was the deadliest 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 accountable for reporter murders has created a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are literally able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

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 past two years.

Societal Impact

The impact on society is profound. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our freedom to exist without fear and securely.

On Thursday, CPJ meets for its yearly global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the identical as my message for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our duty to make sure they cease.