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Michael McKenna

Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, is the president of MWR Strategies. He was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House. He can be reached at mike@mwrstrat.com.

Columns by Michael McKenna

Madman or son of God: Easter calls a busy world back to the question of Jesus

Starting Friday, the world's 2.5 billion Christians will celebrate the torture, execution and resurrection of an obscure itinerant preacher.

April 1, 2026

Democrats only offer taxes and big government if they take control of the House

Partisans on both sides are anticipating the November elections, although for very different reasons.

March 29, 2026

Trump’s crime initiative, Memphis homicides and Tito Porter

President Trump went to Memphis, Tennessee, at the top of this week to talk about law and order and crime and punishment.

March 25, 2026

White House’s ‘banger memes’ trivialize Iran war

George Orwell was rude enough to point out the truth about political rhetoric: "Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable."

March 23, 2026

From Paul Ehrlich to today’s alarmists, doom predictions keep missing reality

At the beginning of this week there were predictions of a weather-borne apocalypse, replete with torrential rains, ferocious winds and tornadoes.

March 18, 2026

Sen. Cornyn’s filibuster flip shows self-preservation, not principle

A week ago, Sen. John Cornyn wrote a letter to the editors of the New York Post explaining that, after 24 years in the Senate, he had come to the sudden epiphany that the filibuster had to go.

March 15, 2026

Carbon border tariffs threaten to become America’s next energy tax

Last week in these pages, Sen. Kevin Cramer, North Dakota Republican, offered a few thoughts with respect to my column about his attempt to create the foundation for a tax on carbon dioxide.

March 11, 2026

To win in November, Republicans must focus on seniors

The news at the end of last week that employment actually fell by 92,000 in February underscored the strong possibility that November may bring difficult midterm elections for Republicans.

March 8, 2026

Trump checks Iran off presidential punch list previous leaders avoided

The administration has given a lot of scattershot and ad hoc reasons for attacking Iran.

March 4, 2026

Miracle on Ice 1980 revived American confidence; 2026 men’s hockey gold medal entertained a nation

The staging of the American hockey team during the State of the Union was pretty good.

March 1, 2026

Why are we still doing State of the Union addresses?

Like most of us, I watched the State of the Union (well, some of it) Tuesday night.

February 25, 2026

George Washington deserves celebration while Presidents Day deserves retirement

Last week, we had to suffer through, once again, the misery and degradation that is Presidents Day.

February 22, 2026

It’s Rubio, Trump in defense of Western civilization

In 1095, Pope Urban II, in a speech to the Council of Clermont, urged Christians in Western Europe to help the Byzantine church and liberate the Holy Land from Muslim rule.

February 18, 2026

Trump should insist on E-Verify

Last week, the Trump administration essentially declared defeat in Minnesota and announced that it would withdraw pretty much all of the federal agents who had been part of the immigration enforcement surge.

February 15, 2026

Thanks to Sen. Kevin Cramer, Republicans vote for an energy tax

A week or two ago, it surfaced that Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer had inserted language into the energy appropriations bill to require the Department of Energy to lay the foundation for a nationwide energy tax.

February 11, 2026

The problem with nationalized law enforcement

For the past millennium, local laws and customs have been predictably enforced in ways that made sense to those who lived under it.

February 4, 2026

Spanberger and Virginia Democrats’ extremist reign begins

The crew over at the U.S. Census Bureau released their latest batch of state population data last week.

February 1, 2026

Stealing from the sick: New York’s Medicaid disgrace

What kind of morally compromised person steals money from the poor and the sick and dying?

January 28, 2026

After Trump, Republicans face a reckoning over conservatism

Some folks in President Trump's orbit of "influencers" have been engaged in an ongoing debate about which person or faction may be able to properly claim the mantle of conservatism.

January 25, 2026