‘Attacking Jews Is a Fast Track to Attention’: Beauty Queen Fired From Religious Liberty Panel Sees Follower Count Explode

Is anti-Zionism the ticket to internet fame?That appears to be the lesson from the meteoric rise of the beauty queen turned conservative commentator, Carrie Prejean Boller, who was ousted from the White House Religious Liberties Commission after defending podcasters Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson during a hearing on antisemitism.While Ms. Boller’s tirade against Zionism cost her a seat on the panel, the 38-year-old former Miss California USA has seen her social media presence surge in the days following Monday’s contentious hearing. Her follower count on X jumped from 4,000 to 82,000 this week — a staggering 1,900 percent increase. Ms. Boller has used her X account to contest her removal and defend her opposition to Zionism as a core tenet of her Catholic faith. One post she reshared this week depicted a Catholic cardinal allegedly referring to Israel as “Satan.” She also reposted a statement from Ms. Owens claiming that “Zionists are naturally hostile to Catholics because we refuse to bend the knee to revisionist history and support the mass slaughter and rape of innocent children for occult Baal worshipers.”Ms. Boller shot into the spotlight after she grilled Jewish witnesses who testified before the panel about their experiences with antisemitism. The hearings are meant to aid the commission in advising the administration on promoting religious liberty.In contrast to her fellow commissioners, Ms. Boller repeatedly challenged witnesses’ accounts, accusing them of employing an overly broad definition of antisemitism. She also called on them to condemn Israel’s war in Gaza, defended both Ms. Owens and Mr. Carlson as critics of Zionism rather than antisemites, and claimed that Zionism is antithetical to Catholic beliefs.Two days after the hearing, the commission’s chairman, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, announced Ms. Boller’s dismissal. He accused her of choosing to “hijack” the hearing for her own “personal and political agenda.”Middle East analyst Eitan Fischberger dubbed Ms. Boller’s overnight fame as an example of the “Francesca Effect” — a phenomenon “in which people chasing relevance discover that attacking Jews is a fast track to attention,” he wrote on X. Named after the virulently anti-Israel United Nations Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, the term “describes individuals who amplify anti-Israel narratives to catapult themselves out of obscurity and into influencer status,” Mr. Fischberger explained.The trend can be traced in the rise of left-wing political streamer Hasan Piker, whose cover spreads in the New Yorker and GQ have coincided with his increasingly pro-terror and anti-Israel rhetoric. Another example is children’s educator turned progressive activist Ms. Rachel, whose Instagram following has grown by roughly 1.5 million since she amped up her anti-Israel commentary following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre.Ms. Boller’s claims about Zionism’s incompatibility with Catholicism, however, have prompted a number of Catholics to publicly denounce the former beauty queen.She received a particularly stern rebuke from the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Bill Donohue, who lambasted Ms. Boller for claiming to speak on behalf of the entire faith.“Prejean Boller is a former Miss California and a convert to Catholicism,” Mr. Donohue said in a statement. “She does not run a Catholic organization, has no Catholic credentials as an author or instructor, and indeed represents no one but herself. For her to say, without qualification, that ‘Catholics do not embrace Zionism,’ is presumptuous and arrogant.” Mr. Donohue, noting that he and millions of other Catholics recognize the state of Israel, called on the Trump administration to remove Ms. Boller from the panel. “The Religious Liberty Commission should have nothing to do with those who are publicly undermining its mission, nor should it become a platform for those who want to exploit it as a vehicle to further their own agenda.”

‘Attacking Jews Is a Fast Track to Attention’: Beauty Queen Fired From Religious Liberty Panel Sees Follower Count Explode

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