Topline
President-elect Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social Friday the Republican Party would “use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time,” which he called “inconvenient” and “very costly to our Nation.”
President-elect Donald Trump said daylight saving time is “inconvenient” and shouldn’t have the … [+]
Key Facts
Trump said the time change—which was first adopted as a wartime policy to give people more daylight—“has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!”
Getting rid of daylight saving time would require an act from Congress and approval by the president.
Trump did not detail any concrete plans to remove daylight saving time, but his post echoes similar complaints from allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who Trump said will co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency.
In late November, both Musk and Ramaswamy posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, with Musk saying “Looks like the people want to abolish the annoying time changes,” and Ramaswamy responding to say the practice is “inefficient & easy to change.”
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Key Background
The practice in which most states set their clocks forward one hour in the spring and back one hour in the fall is not widely liked, and some lawmakers at the state and federal levels have been pushing to get rid of the twice-a-year change for years. The strongest push to eliminate it came in 2022 when the Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act that would have made daylight saving time permanent starting the following year, but it didn’t make it to the House. Proponents of daylight saving time say people appreciate having more sunshine hours after the work day, but opponents believe it does more harm than good to overall health. The changing of the clocks forward on the second Sunday of March is associated with increased heart problems, mood disorders and car crashes, and some people never fully adjust to the change, according to the American Medical Association, which calls for a permanent move to standard time rather than to daylight saving time. Nearly 20 states have passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent, but states cannot make their own time changes under the federal Uniform Time Act passed in 1966, so federal action is required for that legislation to go into effect.
Further Reading
