Carrie Prejean became a religious-right hero for opposing marriage equality when asked about it during the Miss USA pageant in 2009. In 2026, the now-married Carrie Prejean Boller became a pariah to many religious-right activists after using a meeting of the Trump administration's Religious Liberty Commission to criticize Israel and Zionism and defend Candace Owens from charges of antisemitism.
Prior to her removal, Prejean Boller had been critical of Israel's conduct during its military campaign against Palestine and had been voicing her support for the likes of Owens and Tucker Carlson, who have been accused of antisemitism for their own attacks on Israel, rhetoric about Jewish people, and, in Carlson’s case, giving a friendly interview to notoriously antisemitic white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
Since her removal from the commission, Prejean Boller has become even more militant, going so far as to promote clips of Fuentes defending her while ranting about "Holocaustianity." She has also turned the right-wing’s religious persecution script against the religious-right activists on the commission by claiming that she was being sacked for her Catholic religious beliefs.
On Ash Wednesday, Prejean Boller appeared on "The John-Henry Weston Show," a program produced by LifeSite News, which itself has been increasingly critical of Israel and Zionism in recent years, where she disputed the validity of her removal from the Religious Liberty Commission by Texas Lt. Gov. and Religious Liberty Commission chair Dan Patrick and challenged Catholic members of the Trump administration to stand up for her rights as a Catholic.
Prejean Boller reported that she had "already been asked to resign" from the commission by White House Faith advisor Paula White even before the hearing "because I was speaking out about Gaza" and had also been told that she "wasn't allowed to use social media."
"Dan Patrick told me specifically that my job is to protect the president while serving on this commission," Prejean Boller reported, adding that she does not recognize Patrick's power to remove her from the commission.
"I'm waiting on the president to tell the American people what his decision is," Prejean Boller said. "I think he owes it not only to me as a Catholic, but to all religious people of all faiths. I've had so many people reach out to me and say, 'I'm praying for you. I hope he makes the right decision.' This Religious Liberty Commission was established by the president and the only way that I can be removed is by the president. He appointed me and he can only remove me."
"I've heard from several people within the White House that he is receiving tremendous pressure," she added. "I hope that he realizes that 56 percent of Catholics voted for him in 2024 and I know there's three Catholics that are thinking about running for president in 2028. So, I don't think now is the time to really dismiss Catholics, fire Catholics, remove Catholics, simply because I'm standing up for my Catholic faith. So, I'm hopeful that he's going to make the right decision; otherwise, this Religious Liberty Commission should be completely shut down. If I don't have my religious freedom on a religious freedom commission, it's not a religious freedom commission."
"Pray that the president gets the courage to do the right thing and to uphold his promise to the American people that he's going to protect religious freedom, including Christians," Prejean Boller continued. "Why is a Catholic being removed from a commission? Because I don't believe what everybody else believes on that commission? We have a diverse commission for a reason, and we should be allowed to speak our mind and we shouldn't call each other hateful or bigots or any sort of name simply because we hold firm to what we believe."
"Just pray for courage for the president—that's really all we can do—that he would make the right decision and uphold religious liberty here in America, because people are worried," she said. "MAGA is totally divided right now over this issue. If any Catholic wants to win in 2028, I want to encourage J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, and Ron DeSantis to come out in support of me and my religious freedom."
