Carrie Prejean Boller said she was stunned to learn the White House Religious Liberty Commission is more focused on supporting Israel than on protecting the faith freedoms of Americans.
And it was just as astounding that commission leaders attempted to stop her from publicly expressing views that Israel has waged genocide in the Gaza Strip, Boller said during a recent episode of “The Tucker Carlson Show.”
The longtime Trump devotee and former Miss California USA was cut from the commission after a Feb. 9 hearing marked by heated exchanges over the definitions of antisemitism and religious freedom.
Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick (L) greets Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) before she speaks during the first hearing of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission on “the importance of faith to American success” at the Museum of the Bible on June 16, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
“Carrie Prejean Boller has been removed from President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission,” Chairman and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced on social media afterward. “No member of the commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue. This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America. This was my decision.”
But it was Patrick and Paula White, a commission member and leader of the White House Faith Office, who injected politics into the hearing by defining antisemitism as any opposition to Israel or its actions in Gaza, said Boller, who is a convert to Catholicism.
“Any talk of Gaza is a political matter. I actually tallied how many times they talked about Israel and October 7,” she said of the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. “I had to stop counting. So, we were talking about a foreign country, and I look over at Dan and I’m like, ‘We’re talking about a foreign country. So, what is this hearing about? I thought this was a hearing about true antisemitism in America.’”
And this was not the first time Patrick and White tried to get Boller off the commission, she said during the interview with Carlson.
The context for the friction stems from an ongoing debate in MAGA political and religious circles over the primacy of Israel in American foreign policy. Boller is among conservatives who say the U.S. should avoid involvement in military entanglements or war crimes connected to Israel, while Christian Zionists like Patrick and White hold that Israel deserves special support because it is the biblical homeland. She also describes herself as a “pro-life” Christian who believes killing children and civilians in Gaza is immoral.
Soon after her appointment to the commission, Boller said she was contacted by a White House staffer on behalf of Patrick and White to ask that she resign from the commission. She refused.
Carrie Prejean as Miss California
Patrick and White then told her she must not post on social media anything they disagreed with — including her views on Israel and Gaza. They warned she could not post anti-Zionist messages about Israel committing genocide in Gaza, Boller said. “God forbid I criticize Israel — can’t do that while serving in this administration,” she told Carlson.
According to Boller, Patrick told her: “‘I just want to let you know, Carrie, your job on this commission is protect the president and his reputation.”
She told Carlson: “He said that to me the first thing out of his mouth. I couldn’t believe it. I go, ‘What? I thought my job is to protect religious freedom. I thought that’s what he appointed me to do.’”
Patrick then reiterated that she needed to stay off social media, she said. “And then Paula White chimed in and she said, “Yeah, Carrie, you know what? You really shouldn’t be posting about replacement theology. And there’s a lot of people that are saying that you’re an antisemite, Carrie, by your posts and your criticizing Zionism and your criticizing Israel, and we have a problem with that.”
Patrick became “really upset” when she replied she would not stop posting on those issues, Boller said.
Throughout the interview, Carlson expressed amazement of what his fellow MAGA allies were telling Boller: “It’s completely evil. And I’ll just say, I know Paula White, sort of. I know Dan Patrick very well. He’s a lot more liberal than I am. He’s quite liberal, but I always liked him. He’s not stupid at all and I’m shocked by this. I was shocked by it. It’s so disgraceful.”
Carrie Prejean Boller with Tucker Carlson (Screencap)
“Me too,” Boller replied. “I cried, actually. I cried to my husband. I cried to my kids. I couldn’t believe this. I couldn’t believe that this was happening in the United States of America, that we care more about protecting a foreign nation than we do our own people.”
Carlson said the “single saddest thing” to him was that the commission’s tactics and focus represent the reintroduction of identity politics by the administration.
“I think most people (who voted for Trump) are like, ‘identity politics blows up the country. It destroys any cohesion.’ And you start thinking about everything in terms of ‘my group’ and things fall apart. The Left has pushed that for 50 years.”
The situation is reminiscent of 2009 when Boller’s comments against same-sex marriage ultimately cost her the Miss California crown. It was cancel culture then, and it’s cancel culture now, she said.
“They put you in this box and they shut the door and they say: ‘Shut up, you antisemite. You’re not allowed in society. We’re going to shame you. We’re going to cancel you. We’re going to destroy you.’ That’s what they do.”
But she isn’t going away quietly. She has described White as a spy for an Israeli government pushing for the Iran war and posted an open letter to Trump blasting the administration for her firing from the commission.
“I guess American citizens are treated with less dignity than a foreign leader accused of war crimes,” she wrote.
“Your Religious Liberty Commission has been hijacked by heretics and cold-blooded ethnonationalists,” she told Trump. “To say your presidency is a disappoint(ment) to your supporters is an understatement. We believed in you, and you have betrayed us.”
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