President Donald Trump has removed Carrie Prejean Boller from the White House Religious Liberty Commission after she refused to support what she called the panel’s efforts to silence Jewish and Christian voices who oppose Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and reject describing all criticism of Zionism as antisemitic.
The former Miss California USA — who lost her crown in 2009 after nude photographs and sex tapes surfaced — received her termination notice from the White House on March 12. The ouster came weeks after commission Chair Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick first attempted to remove her following a contentious Feb. 9 hearing on antisemitism.
“President Trump officially removes me from the Religious Liberty Commission for exercising my Religious Liberty,” Prejean Boller wrote on social media. “The only Catholic woman who opposes Zionism was removed as a prelude to the Iran war.”
“Religious Liberty Commission member Caroline Prejean Boller was reportedly removed for making statements that mirror remarks from the Pope,” said Congressman Thomas Massie. “Removing members for religious viewpoints undermines the very purpose of the Commission.”
Trump called for Massie’s defeat in a May Kentucky Republican Party primary.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, commended Prejean Boller and Sameerah Munshi, a Muslim adviser who resigned from the commission in protest.
“We commend both Carrie Prejean Boller and Sameerah Munshi for courageously using their roles with the Religious Liberty Commission to actually stand up for religious liberty,” CAIR said in a statement. “Ms. Prejean Boller and Ms. Munshi fulfilled the commission’s stated purpose by opposing all forms of anti-religious bigotry and standing up for every person’s right to express their religious beliefs, including opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
Munshi cited “two deeply troubling developments” in her resignation: Prejean Boller’s removal and what she called “the federal government’s illegal war against Iran, undertaken without clear constitutional or congressional authorization.”
During the Feb. 9 hearing at the Museum of the Bible, Prejean Boller wore a pin combining American and Palestinian flags and pressed witnesses on whether criticism of Israel constitutes antisemitism. She questioned Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish activist, about whether he would “condemn what Israel has done in Gaza.” He declined to do so.
“I’m a Catholic, and Catholics do not embrace Zionism, just so you know, so are all Catholics antisemites?” she asked during the session.
Patrick accused her of commandeering the proceedings for personal purposes.
“No member of the Commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue,” Patrick wrote on X. “This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America. This was my decision.”
Prejean Boller initially resisted, arguing that only the president possessed removal authority.
Conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has faced accusations of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, rallied to Prejean Boller’s defense. “Carrie didn’t hijack anything,” Owens posted. “You hosted a performative Zionist hearing meant to neuter the Christian faith.”
The Catholic League’s Bill Donohue had called for Prejean Boller’s ouster minutes before Patrick acted, labeling her a “rogue Catholic” who “represents no one but herself.”
The controversy unfolds against the backdrop of Israel’s continuing military operations in Gaza, which the United Nations and Amnesty International have characterized as genocidal — a designation Israel rejects. Prejean Boller’s questioning directly challenged the commission’s apparent direction to treat anti-Zionism as inherently antisemitic.
Munshi, a Brown University graduate and former director of the Coalition of Virtue, wrote in her resignation that “people of faith are having their free expression stripped away, and even their lives put at risk, because of their deeply held beliefs about Palestine, all for the sake of a Zionist political agenda.”
Prejean Boller’s history with Trump predates the commission.
In 2009, when Trump owned the Miss Universe Organization, he defended her after she voiced opposition to same-sex marriage during the Miss USA pageant. Months later, she was stripped of her title amid revelations of nude photographs and multiple sex tapes.
CAIR had commended Prejean Boller last month for encouraging interfaith solidarity and opposing what the organization called attempts to “conflate antisemitism with criticism of the Israel apartheid government.”
Prejean Boller framed her removal as a betrayal of the movement she once championed.
“I thought MAGA stood for defending Americans who speak their convictions without fear of punishment,” she wrote in an open letter. “Today I struggle to recognize the movement you started.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
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