🔗 Share this article

“Stuff occurs.” Just two words. That’s all it took for Donald Trump to brush off what is arguably the most infamous journalist killing of the past ten years – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his disregard toward journalists, for journalism – and for the facts.

The Context

The American leader’s dismissive attitude of the killing of well-known reporter Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the US intelligence found in a 2021 report had ordered the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in that year. (Prince Mohammed has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the sole entities to conclude the homicide – which took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and in which the 59-year-old journalist was sedated and dismembered – was signed off at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a brief period, nations were in agreement in their condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s actions. The US imposed sanctions and travel restrictions in 2021 over the murder, although it stopped short of sanctioning Prince Mohammed himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the crown prince’s visit to Washington seemed to be the final confirmation of that rehabilitation.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had roundly condemned the visit. But what was evident at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then blamed the victim. The crown prince, he claimed when asked, was unaware about the murder – in direct contradiction to what his nation’s intelligence services concluded four years ago. Moreover, Trump said: “Many individuals disliked that person that you’re talking about, whether you like him or disapproved, 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 press. He has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose journalist asked the question about Khashoggi at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), berated them in public (he called one a “piggy” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued news outlets for large amounts 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 language of his preference, and he has slashed funding for essential public media at domestically and crucial free press internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an environment in which reporters are clearly more vulnerable in the United States, but one in which their targeting – and indeed killing – becomes not just insignificant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people disliked that person”).

It is no surprise that 2024 was the deadliest year on record for journalists in the over three decades the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been tracking this information: a persistent failure to hold those accountable for reporter murders has established a environment without consequences in which journalists’ killers are literally able to escape punishment and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Israel, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 200 journalists in the past two years.

Effect on Society

The impact on society is deep. Attacks on journalists are assaults on facts. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our entitlement to information and on our freedom to exist without fear and safely.

This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists meets for its yearly International Press Freedom awards. My message there is the identical as my one for Trump: such events may happen. But it is our responsibility to make sure they cease.