Fitness Guru Jillian Michaels Went From Criticizing Mike Pence to Supporting Donald Trump

Fans of The Biggest Loser undoubtedly remember Jillian Michaels, who was a trainer on the reality television series for the first two seasons. She left and returned to the show a few times before exiting a final time after Season 15.

During this time, she hosted her own show, Losing it with Jillian, which ran for one season in 2010.

Jillian's relationship with fitness began at an early age, after her mother enrolled her in a martial arts class at the age of 13. Although Jillian described herself as a heavy child, this decision had nothing to do with weight loss.

The fitness guru's parents had just divorced, and as she told Women's Health, martial arts were a good emotional outlet.

She never spoke publicly about politics until 2016. Here's what we know about her political views.

In November 2016, Go Mag spoke with Jillian eight days after Donald Trump was elected for the first time. By this point, Jillian had been an out and proud bisexual person for four years. When asked how she was feeling about the election, which included a very anti-gay vice president in Mike Pence, Jillian said she was furious.

"I just feel like everyone’s temporarily lost their minds," said Jillian regarding the election. She was confused by the excitement surrounding Donald Trump, who had promised to jail political opponents, limit the freedom of the press, and tear apart civil liberties.

Jillian went on to say that the office of the President has to earn respect; it would not be handed over freely. "I don’t respect him [Trump]," she said.

Jillian and her ex-partner adopted a two-year-old girl from Haiti in May 2012. That same month, Jillian's then-partner gave birth to their son, who is half-Latino.

She told a story about her daughter telling her that, "Trump doesn't like brown people." All of this was feeding her dislike for the president.

The fitness trainer also didn't like Mike Pence, whom she described as the "number one anti-gay politician in the country right now."

Eight years after Jillian was enraged over Donald Trump's first presidential win, she went on The Rubin Report podcast to discuss why she was voting for Donald Trump, who was running a third time.

"I put it this way, he wasn't my choice out of the candidates that were running for the primary," she said. "I do understand his flaws. Trust me, I could list all of them, but the problem for me is that it becomes a question of lesser evils."

She wasn't endorsing Trump, but she felt alienated by the people on the left.

"I do think these massive defections will inevitably have an impact," mused the fitness trainer. Jillian also went into detail as to why she moved out of Los Angeles while speaking with Sage Steele on her podcast in June 2024.

Despite holding "all the cards" in the "woke victimology poker," she still felt compelled to leave California, the state where she was born and raised.

"I actually haven't changed," said Jillian, "the world around me is shifting and I haven't moved." She cited various laws that had been passed in California, one of which decriminalizes sex work as far as loitering goes, but doesn't keep sex workers safe from "pimps" or sexually transmitted diseases.

Her main issue is the lack of regulation, not the idea of sex work itself. Jillian also thinks trans athletes shouldn't be able to compete as the sex they identify with, based on scientific studies.

What Jillian has been the most politically motivated by is what she says is the manipulation of the food and health care industries. The fitness guru was and is a big supporter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again movement, and laid out why she supports him in an Instagram post from November 2024.

This appeared to be the biggest tipping point for Jillian.