Carrie Prejean Asked Uncomfortable Questions About Israel and Lost Her Job Two Days Later

Carrie Prejean Boller did not arrive at the February 9, 2026 hearing on anti-Semitism in America as a hardened ideologue. She came wearing an American-Palestinian flag pin, armed with questions she believed a Religious Liberty Commission should be willing to hear, and convinced that religious freedom meant the freedom to dissent from the prevailing orthodoxy on Israel.

By February 11, she was gone.

The former Miss California USA, a recent convert to Catholicism appointed by President Trump to his White House Religious Liberty Commission, was removed from the panel after she challenged witnesses at a Museum of the Bible hearing about whether criticizing Israeli policy in Gaza constituted anti-Semitism, whether Catholics were required to embrace Zionism, and whether social media platforms would be pressured to censor biblical passages about the role of Jewish authorities in the crucifixion of Christ.

Her removal came not from President Trump, but from Commission Chair Dan Patrick, the evangelical Christian Lieutenant Governor of Texas. Prejean responded with a public letter rejecting his authority and accusing him of acting “in alignment with a Zionist political framework that hijacked the hearing, rather than in defense of religious liberty.”

The message was unmistakable. In an era when Jewish power over American discourse on Israel has reached unprecedented consolidation, even asking the wrong questions can be detrimental to one’s standing in normie political circles.

Prejean is by no means a fervent anti-Semite. Her career arc, in fact, mirrors that of a typical establishment conservative. She rose to national attention in 2009 when, as Miss California USA competing for the Miss USA title, she answered a question from celebrity blogger Perez Hilton about same-sex marriage by saying she believed marriage was between a man and a woman. The answer cost her the crown and made her a hero to social conservatives. She subsequently authored “Still Standing”, appeared on conservative media circuits, and built a brand as a defender of traditional values and religious conviction in a hostile culture.

Prejean married former NFL quarterback Kyle Boller, had children, and converted to Catholicism in April 2025. When Trump appointed her to the Religious Liberty Commission, it seemed a natural fit for someone whose public persona had been defined by refusing to bend under pressure.

That history makes what happened next even more revealing. If someone with Prejean’s conventional conservative credentials could be expelled for the simple questions she asked, the boundaries of acceptable discourse on Israel have become vanishingly narrow.

The February 9 hearing was convened to address the rising levels of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism taking place in the United States, particularly on college campuses following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli genocide in Gaza. Witnesses included Yeshiva University President Ari Berman, Jewish activist Shabbos Kestenbaum, Jewish students, and rabbis who shared accounts of rising anti-Semitism and harassment.

Prejean used her questioning time to challenge the premise of the hearing itself. She asked witnesses whether “speaking out about what many Americans view as a genocide in Gaza should be treated as anti-Semitic.” The Miss California winner pressed them directly with a yes or no question. “If I don’t support the political state of Israel, am I an anti-Semite, yes or no?”

Prejean defended Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, both of whom had faced accusations of trafficking in anti-Semitic rhetoric, saying she listened to Owens daily and had “never heard anything anti-Semitic from her.” She told the panel that “Catholics do not embrace Zionism” and asked, “So are all Catholics anti-Semites?”

Most controversially, she raised the historical charge that “Jews killed Jesus,” asking whether social media platforms would face pressure to ban biblical passages referencing Jewish authorities’ role in the crucifixion. She also directly challenged Kestenbaum, noting that Israel had been mentioned 17 times during the hearing and asking, “Are you willing to condemn what Israel has done in Gaza?”

Chair Dan Patrick halted her questioning. The backlash online was immediate. Far-right activist Laura Loomer called for her removal. Kestenbaum publicly urged her to resign.

Prejean refused. She tweeted, “I would rather die than bend the knee to Israel,” and accused the commission of pushing a pro-Zionist agenda rather than protecting religious liberty. She posted that she would “continue to stand against Zionist supremacy in America” and described herself as “a pro-life Catholic and a free American who will not surrender religious liberty to political pressure.”

On February 11, Patrick announced her removal, stating, “No member of the Commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue.” Prejean responded with a defiant open letter disputing Patrick’s authority to remove her. She wrote that the commission “was created by Executive Order of President Donald J. Trump. Members were appointed by the President and serve as his appointees. Nothing in the Executive Order grants you the power to remove presidential appointees.”

She accused Patrick of “speaking without authority” and acting on “a Zionist political agenda, not the President’s, not the U.S. Constitution’s, and not the purpose of this Commission.” Her closing lines were unambiguous. “I refuse to bend the knee to Israel. I am no slave to a foreign nation, but to Christ our King.”

The controversy exposed fractures not just on the right, but within Catholicism itself. Prejean claimed to be defending Catholic doctrine. Catholic commissioners at the hearing said she was distorting it. A priest on the panel cited the Second Vatican Council’s Nostra Aetate (1965), which formally repudiated the deicide charge and condemned anti-Semitism “directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”

What happened to Prejean is not an isolated incident. Her expulsion exemplifies organized Jewry’s commitment to policing all forms of criticism directed against Israel or any other Jewish-dominated entity.

The machinery is well established. Pro-Israel donors flood campaigns, ensuring politicians who stray face primary challenges from groups like AIPAC’s United Democracy Project. Think tanks from the American Enterprise Institute to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies enforce orthodoxy. Media outlets amplify charges of anti-Semitism against anyone questioning the U.S.-Israel relationship. Social media platforms adjust content moderation under pressure from organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and the Combat Antisemitism Movement, which celebrated Prejean’s removal.

Carrie Prejean Boller is no ideologue steeped in anti-Semitic fervor or the arcana of the Jewish question; she is simply one more American recoiling from the Gaza genocide unleashed after October 7. Jewish organizations, however, flush with unchecked authority in the wake of October 7, brook no dissent, branding even the feeblest remonstrance against Israel as heresy. Her expulsion thus lays bare the iron grip on American public life, where religious liberty yields to the caprices of Jewish enforcers.