The President's Dismissal regarding Khashoggi Killing Represents a Disturbing Development.

“Incidents take place.” Just two words. That was enough for Donald Trump to brush off what is arguably the most notorious journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing plumbed a new low in his contempt for journalists, for the media – and for the truth.

The Context

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi 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 journalist in that year. (The crown prince has denied involvement.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to determine the murder – which took place in the Saudi diplomatic building in Turkey and in which the 59-year-old Khashoggi was drugged and cut apart – was approved at the top echelons. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, Agnès Callamard, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were unified in their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US imposed penalties and visa bans in that year over the murder, although it stopped short of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the nation has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the ultimate sign of that rehabilitation.

White House Remarks

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the meeting. But what was evident at the White House was more alarming than could have been imagined. Not only did the president honor the Saudi leader but he seemed to alter history – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, Trump claimed when asked, knew nothing about the murder – in clear opposition to what his nation’s intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, the president said: “Many individuals didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or didn’t like him, incidents occur.”

Established Conduct

This represents a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made little secret of his disdain for the truth – or for the media. He has defamed reporters (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the inquiry about the journalist at the media event “false information”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the convicted sex offender financier the convicted criminal), taken legal action against news outlets for large amounts of money in frivolous cases, and called for media groups he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has forced veteran news services out of the official briefing group for refusing to use language of his choosing, and he has slashed financial support for vital news services at home and vital independent media abroad.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an atmosphere in which journalists are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed murder – becomes not just insignificant (“incidents occur”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that person”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the deadliest year on file for the press in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been documenting this data: a ongoing neglect to bring to justice those responsible for reporter murders has established a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are literally able to get away with murder and so continue to do so.

In no place is this clearer than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is accountable for the deaths of over two hundred media workers in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The impact on the public is profound. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our liberty to live freely and securely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its annual global journalism honors. My message at the event is the same as my one for the president: these things may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.