President Donald Trump has dismissed Carrie Prejean Boller, the wife of former NFL quarterback Kyle Boller, from her role on the White House Religious Liberty Commission after a contentious antisemitism hearing that revealed sharp divisions within the advisory group.
The 38-year-old former Miss California USA said she received a short email from Mary Sprowls at the Presidential Personnel Office stating her appointment was “terminated effective immediately.” The email carried a February 12 date, but Boller said she only saw it in mid-March. Her removal followed clashes with Jewish witnesses at a February 9, 2026 hearing on antisemitism in the U.S. after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people.
At the heated hearing, Boller questioned whether opposition to Zionism should be labeled antisemitism and defended conservative commentator Candace Owens against claims of antisemitic language. She also disputed accounts from Jewish college students who reported antisemitic incidents on campus after protests tied to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“Catholics do not embrace Zionism, just so you know. So are all Catholics antisemites?” Boller asked during the hearing, prompting immediate objections from others, including Seth Dillon, CEO of The Babylon Bee, who testified that conservatives must resist a rising antisemitic trend on the right.
Two days after the hearing, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the commission, announced Boller’s ouster. “No member of the Commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue,” Patrick posted on social media. “This is clearly, without question, what happened on Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America. This was my decision.”
President Trump created the Religious Liberty Commission on May 1, 2025, to advise the White House Faith Office and Domestic Policy Council on religious freedom matters. Boller was one of the initial 13 appointees to the panel, which Patrick chairs and Ben Carson serves as vice chair.
In a sharply worded open letter on social media after her dismissal, Boller accused the president of abandoning the values that once defined his movement. She reminded Trump that he defended her free-speech rights in 2009 when, as Miss USA pageant owner, he initially let her keep the Miss California title amid national backlash over her comment that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Trump later agreed to end her contract that June, citing “continued breach of contract issues.”
She described her commission work as centered on defending religious liberty for Americans affected by vaccine mandates and other constraints. Boller said she supported mothers denied religious exemptions and met nurses who lost jobs for refusing the COVID vaccine on religious grounds.
Boller also discussed her advocacy about Gaza, which she said stemmed from her Catholic faith. She converted to Catholicism at the 2025 Easter Vigil and said she wanted to distance herself from Christian Zionism. She claimed she spoke with students protesting Israeli government actions in Gaza who were exercising First Amendment rights but were branded as terrorists and antisemites.
The uproar over her removal grew as Boller denounced what she called a “witch hunt” allegedly led by White House Faith Office head Paula White and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, whom she labeled “Zionist heretics” in public remarks.
In her letter to President Trump, Boller said she was upset that she learned of her firing via an email from a staffer rather than directly. “I stood by you when you were called every name imaginable. I wore the red MAGA hat proudly because I believed in what you were fighting for. Now, I don’t even recognize you,” she wrote.
The dismissal comes amid tensions over U.S. actions in the Middle East. Boller referenced military strikes against Iran that began in late February, which she noted have led to 13 American service members killed since Operation Epic Fury started on February 28. She suggested her removal signaled “a prelude to the Iran war” and criticized what she described as abandoning the America First stance.
A day after the firing became public in March, Sameerah Munshi, a Muslim adviser to the commission, resigned in protest, citing both Boller’s removal and the administration’s foreign actions. The commission also faces a federal lawsuit from progressive religious groups claiming it lacks diverse representation and is composed almost entirely of conservative Christians.
The White House has not released any public comment beyond the formal termination notice. Vice President JD Vance has not responded to the controversy.