In this excerpt from The Dennis Prager Show, host Dennis Prager interviews Alan Estrin, co‑founder of PragerU and producer of the show, about his recent attendance at a White House social‑media conference. Estrin recounts the multi‑layered security checks required to enter the White House, noting the lack of a palpable armed‑guard presence once inside. He describes two sessions: a smaller 30‑40‑person gathering in the Roosevelt Room (west side) and a larger 200‑person meeting in the East Room. Estrin identifies several familiar faces from PragerU productions—James O'Keefe, Joy Villa, Charlie Kirk—and notes the prevalence of PragerU‑related videos among attendees. He shares his emotional reaction, describing a feeling of “healthy patriotism” and awe at the historic surroundings. Regarding President Trump, Estrin observes that the in‑person experience matches his televised perception: the president is a skilled showman, highly aware of audience reaction, and his live presentations feel like an entertaining stand‑up routine. The segment ends with Prager promoting a call‑in number and mentioning his upcoming Senate testimony.
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Jesse Smollett represents the New York Times. Let us find racism because it is so hard. Let us look for it and even invent it. That is, that is, Jesse Smollett should be, he should be the symbol for Nike. Nike, Nike should hire Jesse Smollett. I think I'm, I think that I should I should tweet that. That would truly be in keeping with the left's theory of how racist America is. Yesterday there was a conference at the White House, social media conference, and among those invited to attend was Prager University and Alan Dershowitz. Estrin, producer of this radio show as well as co-founder of PragerU with me, was there. And now, and, uh, let's, uh, let's get a firsthand report. Uh, you've never— you were never in the White House, Alan, were you?
Well, well, that's not quite true. I was there when I was 12 years old. That was the last time I was there. Oh, it hasn't changed that much. It all looks very familiar to me.
Exactly.
In fact, there's— in effect, it was the first time I was—
yeah, no, I get it. But there was a— isn't there a little place Alan Estrin was here?
You know, I asked and they kind of shrugged.
Uh-huh. That's sad. All right. So what is it like just emotionally?
You know, I'm— Emotionally, it's very— I'm not going to say I was overwhelmed, but I was— you're full of a real, I would say, very healthy patriotism. This is the most famous house in the world. So many things happen here. There's so much history here. And you walk through the hallways and there are these beautiful— I mean, you've been there, so you know there are these beautiful portraits of every president. And first lady and historical figures. It's an inspiring place. So it was— it's always— I can't say it's always fun to be there because I've only been there twice now, but it was special just to be there. Yes.
Do you feel the presence of armed guards?
No, I didn't feel the presence of armed guards, but I was First of all, I'll say this, to get into the White House, I went through 4 different security checks and they all did the same thing.
Mm-hmm.
They, they, we, I went through one checkpoint and then I went to another checkpoint and had to do the exact same thing, went through a third checkpoint and did the exact same thing and then had to go through a metal detector. Mm-hmm. So they, uh, they're very careful, obviously.
But once you're in, you don't have a sense of armed guards?
No, no, right. Once you're in, right. I didn't have that sense. There are military people all over the place in, in, you know, in uniform, which adds to the majesty of the, of, right, of the White House, I think.
Where did this social media meeting take place?
There were two meetings. There was one smaller gathering of about 30 or 40 people in the Roosevelt Room on the, uh, I believe it was the west side. That could have been the east side of the White House. And there was another much larger meeting of 200 people in the, uh, in the East Room.
How many, how many of these people, how many in either meeting did you happen to know?
In the smaller meeting, I would say if there were 30 people there, I knew 5. And in the bigger meeting, I knew a lot of people. One observation that I will make about the larger meeting, I looked around and I thought, gee, we did a, we did a PragerU video with this person, that person, this person, that person. There were, there are a lot of PragerU videos represented in that meeting.
Right.
I mean, James O'Keefe was there, and a video that we haven't released yet, um, a presenter was— another presenter was there. You remember Joy Villa? She was there.
Oh yeah, of course.
Charlie Kirk was there. He's done several videos for us. So, yeah.
So what did you take away? You had never met the president in person, correct?
No, and I didn't meet him in person this time either.
But you were with him. No, no, you didn't shake his hand, but you met him. I mean, in the sense that he was— he wasn't on TV, he was in front of you.
Yes.
Right. So is he different in person than you had a sense of? I mean, you've been observing him closely for years.
Yeah. No, and I actually thought to myself, wow, just the same. There's no difference. And his presentation, it was the first time, as you point out, that I saw him in person. But the way— and I know this obviously from watching you give many speeches in person, there's a real atmosphere to the room when somebody's presenting something in person, no matter how you do a close-up on TV, it's different. It's a live event. And it's— he's a very impressive person in the way he presents his ideas. I mean, he's— he understands how to present an idea. He understands— and to see him work the crowd is something to behold.
Because?
Because he's so incredibly aware I mean, it's another thing that I've learned from you. He's so aware of who the audience is and what kind of reaction he's getting from the audience and how to build on that reaction. It's a skill. I'm not sure it's a skill. I don't know. I'm sure you can get better at it, but he obviously has a natural instinct. He is a showman. You could— his events are in some ways, when he's speaking in public like this and mostly off the cuff, it's like a stand-up routine. Just very, very entertaining.
All right, hold on. Alan Estrin, my producer, was at the White House yesterday. 1-800-PRAGER-776. What did they say? I will, of course, be testifying in the U.S. Senate next Tuesday. The Dennis Prager Show, live from the Relief Factor Pain-Free Studio.
