Health and wellness expert Jillian Michaels on Monday rebuked President Trump’s executive order approving the use of a controversial pesticide, describing the move as “devastating.”
“This is actually devastating; it is not a conspiracy theory that glyphosate is linked to cancer. There are hundreds of studies that have illustrated now it increases risk significantly for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” Michaels said during an appearance on NewsNation’s “The Hill.”
“We also know through whistleblowers and numerous lawsuits, of which there have been over 170,000, that the chemical company knew this and tried to bury the information, tried to go after the independent researchers, created ghost studies to try to tell a different story and essentially, they now have to pay $7.25 billion the makers of glyphosate to the victims,” she added.
President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that was supportive of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup weedkiller, about which thousands of people have made cancer claims in court.
He directed the agriculture secretary to ensure the country has an adequate supply of glyphosate-based herbicides, also saying that producers of such chemicals should have “immunity” under the Defense Production Act.
The move was met with backlash from the Republican-aligned MAHA movement, which is widely against the use of pesticides and is also skeptical of vaccines. The movement is linked to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Michaels, a proponent of the administration’s MAHA movement and a staunch supporter of Kennedy Jr., said the pesticide should be “pulled off the shelves” after years of reported health concerns.
The television personality said Trump gave them “blanket immunity” through the new executive order just a day after Roundup-maker Monsanto and thousands of plaintiffs reached a $7.25 billion settlement agreement.
The order also says that glyphosate helps farmers “efficiently” and “cost-effectively” produce food and livestock feed.
Despite being critical of glyphosate in the past, Kennedy backed the measure, writing that the move would bring agricultural chemical production back to the United States and “end our near-total reliance on adversarial nations.”
“Given the profit margins growers currently face, any major restrictions in access to glyphosate-based herbicides would result in economic losses for growers and make it untenable for them to meet growing food and feed demands,” the order reads.
However, Michaels argued that this is not true.
“I don’t buy that we we have a bevy of ultra processed crops, corn, soy, wheat; there’s unfortunately no shortage, which of course has to do with hundreds of billions in the subsidy dollars, and I think that somebody powerful called up someone else powerful after paying out $7.25 billion and essentially saying this is an existential threat we need to call in this favor, and they did and it’s exceptionally upsetting,” Michaels said.
“This doesn’t just affect farmers, this is omnipresent. It’s it’s you they would probably find it in yours and my urine right now if they tested for it,” she added.
