Alex Stein, right-wing media personality and “Prime Time with Alex Stein” host, called for listeners to be unapologetically themselves and question their reality during a Q&A session at the Illini Union Wednesday night.
Known for “trolling” protesters, Stein repeated rhetoric from some of his videos, including his perspectives on transgender people in the U.S. military, undocumented immigrants and women.
During the event, Stein made multiple jokes that leaned on racial stereotypes, such as Asian people being bad drivers.
Stein also joked that he was fired as a substitute teacher for teaching critical race theory, saying he took the kids on a field trip without a parental waiver and made the white students pick cotton. Following the joke, the audience was quiet.
“Is that bad?” Stein asked. “Are you guys scared? (Are) you guys scared to laugh? We’re going to get attacked.”
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Hosted by the University’s chapter of Turning Point USA, the free Q&A had more than 80 attendees. Several UIPD officers and I-Team members stood at the entrance, and attendees needed to pass through a metal detector to enter the event.
The event was part of Turning Point’s “Pick Up the Mic” initiative, honoring the legacy of the late TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk with open dialogue and interactive Q&As. Stein repeatedly said attendees should be themselves and question their realities.
“My life changed when I stopped worrying about the opinions of strangers, and I believe that if you start living unapologetically yourself, whether you’re a conservative, whether you’re a libt—, your life will be a lot better,” Stein said. “Whether you’re being successful or you’re failing, the opinions of others do not matter.”
Stein said he understands that his perspectives are divisive, and, with that in mind, he did not expect to change people’s opinions at the event. Instead, he hoped to inspire people to ask questions because they are “fed so many lies” from the media.
At one point, Stein echoed his viral video and said President Donald Trump’s actions to remove transgender people from the military were wrong. He also claimed that transgender people committed eight of the last eight mass shootings. In a separate Instagram video from March 17, Stein claimed transgender individuals were responsible for seven of the last eight mass shootings.
Gun Violence Archive, an independent organization that tracks gun violence data in the United States, defines a mass shooting as an incident where four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter — a broader definition than some others. Of the 94 U.S. mass shootings reported in 2026 as of April 1, transgender individuals were responsible for one, according to GVA.
“You know, this is a serious issue,” Stein said about the suicide attempt rates of transgender individuals. “I think the best way to address that would be to maybe take a page out of Iran’s playbook, and we give them suicide vests … cause they were going to kill themselves anyway, right?”
Some audience members applauded the statements. Multiple times after, Stein referred to transgender people as “mean” but said that he is not anti-LGBTQ+ since he is a fan of the Dallas Cowboys. In 2014, the Dallas Cowboys drafted Michael Sam, the first openly gay player in the NFL.
Stein also commented on women’s roles, looks and intelligence, including derogatory comments toward U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY.
Last year, Illinois State University’s TPUSA chapter hosted Stein, where he said: “Women need to look pretty, men need to look ugly … We need to take back our masculinity in society and not be afraid to be misogynistic.”
The University has more than 27,000 female students on campus. When The Daily Illini asked about his previous statements on misogyny and his perspective on women in higher education, Stein said men are supposed to be leaders and women would be better suited to certain roles.
“I think they’d be better cooks,” Stein said. “I do think that a little bit. I know there are some smart women, but I get nervous when I see a female pilot. There are certain roles that women fit in better than men.”
Stein also said he believes that women can be teachers and that women “are almost more important than men in a way, because they can have babies.”
Regarding abortion, Stein expressed his strong opposition and called it “one of the biggest plagues on society.” He encouraged women who become pregnant to “keep the baby” and claimed that women who have abortions “want to have an easier life.”
Some attendees said they appreciated the community they found in the room. Nathan Venneberg, junior in Engineering, said he came to the event after opting in to the TPUSA mailing list at Kirk’s April 2025 speech in Foellinger Auditorium.
“I think the best part is a lot of people here are networking,” Venneberg said. “If you walk down Green Street, you’ll see stickers saying ‘kill fascists’ and ‘Charlie Kirk was a fascist,’ and now he’s dead. There’s some nasty things, so it’s nice to see and talk to people that aren’t going to say (those) things.”
Other people attended out of curiosity without much prior knowledge about Stein.
Brenden Crowson, junior in LAS, described his political views as far left but said he had never heard of Stein. He attended the event to learn more about TPUSA’s views.
“It was interesting hearing that in a real setting,” Crowson said. “You can always look at it on social media, but it’s so far away from you. I think it’s very concerning. … How can you support this ideology when so much of it contradicts your own value as a human being?”
The DI reached out to the University’s TPUSA chapter for an interview but it declined.
