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“Things happen.” A mere phrase. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is probably the most notorious journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his disregard toward journalists, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the murder of well-known reporter the Washington Post columnist came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA found in a 2021 report had orchestrated the abduction and murder of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The American spy agencies were not the sole entities to determine the murder – which occurred in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and in which the late journalist was drugged and dismembered – was signed off at the top echelons. An inquiry led by former UN expert, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

Global Reactions

For a short time, governments were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States imposed sanctions and visa bans in that year over the murder, although it refrained of penalizing 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 ultimate sign of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the visit. But what was on display at the presidential residence was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did the president honor Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote history – and then pointed fingers at the victim. The crown prince, Trump asserted when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in clear opposition to what his nation’s spy agencies determined four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

Established Conduct

This marks a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the truth – or for the press. He has defamed journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “false information”), scolded them in public (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier the convicted criminal), sued media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in frivolous cases, and called for news outlets he disapproves of to lose their licenses.

He has pressured established media out of the White House press pool for declining to use terminology of his preference, and he has gutted financial support for vital news services at domestically and vital independent media internationally.

Broader Implications

All of that has fostered an atmosphere in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“incidents occur”) but acceptable (“many individuals didn’t like that person”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the most lethal year on record for journalists in the more than 30 years the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been documenting this information: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those accountable for journalist killings has established a culture of impunity in which journalists’ killers are actually able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

In no place is this clearer than in Israel, which is accountable for the killing of more than 200 media workers in the recent period.

Societal Impact

The impact on society is deep. Targeting reporters are assaults on facts. They are attacks on facts. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its annual global journalism honors. The statement at the event is the same as my one for Trump: these things may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they do not.