Carrie Prejean Boller, the former Miss California who once became a conservative cause célèbre for opposing gay marriage, has been removed from the White House Religious Liberty Commission after she showed up to a hearing on antisemitism wearing a Palestinian flag pin and used the platform to push her own agenda.
The hearing took place Monday, February 9, at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. It was supposed to focus on combating antisemitism and upholding religious freedom. Instead, Prejean Boller turned it into a spectacle — rejecting Zionism, invoking her Catholic faith as justification, and getting into heated exchanges with other participants.
Dan Patrick, the Texas lieutenant governor who chairs the commission, said she worked to "hijack a hearing" and promote her "own personal and political agenda." Her removal drew applause from Catholic leaders, conservative commentators, and Trump allies alike.
The confrontations were not subtle. According to the New York Post, Prejean Boller squared off with Shabbos Kestenbaum, a former Harvard student who sued the university over its response to antisemitism — exactly the kind of person you'd expect at a hearing on that subject. She demanded he condemn Israel on the record:
"Are you willing to condemn what Israel has done in Gaza? You won't condemn that? Just on the record."
When Babylon Bee founder and CEO Seth Dillon pressed her on whether Candace Owens had made antisemitic remarks, Prejean Boller didn't flinch:
"No, I don't."
And then the line that crystallized the problem. Prejean Boller declared to the room:
"I am a Catholic, and Catholics don't embrace Zionism."
She didn't speak for herself. She spoke for an entire faith — one she converted to just last April.
The response from actual Catholic leaders was swift and unsparing. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, published an opinion piece calling for her ouster on Wednesday. He did not mince words:
"Prejean Boller is a former Miss California and a convert to Catholicism. She does not run a Catholic organization, has no Catholic credentials as an author or instructor, and indeed represents no one but herself. For her to say, without qualification, that 'Catholics do not embrace Zionism,' is presumptuous and arrogant."
Donohue went further, dismantling the premise entirely:
"Zionism is a movement that promotes Jewish self-determination in a homeland. There are millions of Catholics like myself who, even if they do not identify themselves as Zionists, recognize the Jewish state of Israel. Prejean Boller apparently does not — she is more comfortable showing up at the Religious Liberty Commission wearing a Palestinian flag pin. So telling."
Shawn Carney, president and CEO of 40 Days for Life, delivered the theological rebuttal. His point was simple: the idea that Catholicism is inherently anti-Jewish isn't just wrong — it's a recent fabrication with no roots in Church history:
"This division is a recent fad and an online invention. For centuries, Catholics have understood that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Davidic kingdom and that our faith comes from the Jews. Catholic teaching holds that the Church is the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Covenant. To suddenly claim that Catholics are against Jews is absurd — it is a modern, internet-based error."
Carney also noted that no president in modern history has done more to protect religious liberty for both Catholics and Jews than Trump. The commission exists because of that commitment. Prejean Boller treated it like an open mic night.
There's a playbook here, and conservative commentators recognized it immediately. Social media account Bonchie laid it out plainly:
"The only one who brought up Zionism at the event was… Carrie Prejean Boller. Classic grifter play happening here. Cause a scene of her own making, claim to be the victim, profit. A story as old as time."
Jim Hanson, president of WorldStrat and chief editor of the Middle East Forum, zeroed in on the symbolism:
"Whatever you think of the rest of Carrie Prejean Boller's views, wearing a Palestinian flag to a hearing on religious liberty is disgraceful."
And that's the thing. This wasn't a policy disagreement. It wasn't a good-faith debate about the complexities of Middle Eastern geopolitics. She wore a Palestinian flag pin to a hearing specifically convened to address antisemitism. The provocation was the point.
Patrick said he personally decided to remove her. Prejean Boller disputed that on X, claiming he lacked the authority:
"You did not appoint me to the Commission, and you lack authority to remove me from it. This is a gross overstepping of your role and leads me to believe you are acting in alignment with a Zionist political framework that hijacked the hearing, rather than in defense of religious liberty."
Senator Ted Cruz settled the question with one sentence on X:
"Let's be clear: it was President Trump who fired her."
Cruz didn't stop there. His full comments revealed a mix of exasperation and something close to pity:
"There are 57 Muslim countries on Earth; this poor thing has been deluded into thinking that the fact that Israel exists — in the promised land given to the Jewish people thousands of years ago by Jehovah — is somehow the source of all her troubles. And no, Catholics don't hate Israel. As Charlie Kirk said repeatedly, antisemitism is a brain rot, and someone has been pouring this poison into her head."
A former Trump White House official was less charitable:
"Carrie Prejean was thrown off the Religious Liberty Commission, and thank God. These commissions exist to advance the President's agenda, not to serve as a personal Jew-hating platform."
Prejean Boller's post-removal statements only confirmed the wisdom of the decision. Rather than recalibrate, she escalated:
"Christians have been manipulated into believing that God blesses bombing, starvation, and mass killing. That is the opposite of Christ, who came to stand with the suffering and confront power. I reject that lie completely. I am not owned by money, donors, or access. I belong to Christ alone who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I would rather die than bend the knee to Israel."
There's a strain of thinking that has infected certain corners of the online right — a conspiratorial posture dressed in theological language, where support for the Jewish state becomes evidence of corruption, and every institution that disagrees with you has been "hijacked." Prejean Boller's rhetoric fits that mold perfectly. She framed her removal not as a consequence of her own conduct but as proof that shadowy forces control the commission. The hearing was "hijacked" — not by her, of course, but by the "Zionist political framework."
This is what makes it different from a simple policy disagreement. Reasonable people can debate the scope and conduct of military operations. But Prejean Boller wasn't offering policy analysis. She was deploying the language of martyrdom to shield herself from accountability, while claiming to speak for a faith she joined less than a year ago.
Trump established the Religious Liberty Commission by executive order in May, directing the Department of Justice to support a body focused on upholding federal laws that protect citizens' participation in a pluralistic democracy and the free exercise of religion. The former Trump White House official outlined the record that undergirds it:
"President Trump delivered historic victories for the Jewish people. He recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved the US Embassy there. He recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He brokered the Abraham Accords and reshaped the Middle East. He kept his promise to bring every last hostage home and made clear that antisemitism at home will be confronted head on, including holding universities accountable when Jewish students are targeted."
That's the agenda the commission exists to advance. Prejean Boller walked into the Museum of the Bible, pinned a Palestinian flag to her lapel, and tried to turn a hearing on antisemitism into a referendum on Israel's right to exist.
The commission did what commissions rarely do. It enforced its own standards.
