President-elect Donald Trump announced Friday that he’ll back Republican-led efforts to eliminate daylight saving time, arguing that the twice-a-year ritual of adjusting clocks is “inconvenient” and “very costly.”
“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” Trump, 78, wrote on Truth Social.
“Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” he added.
Proponents of scrapping March and November clock changes have argued that the biannual transitions of “spring forward” and “fall back” disrupt sleeping patterns and negatively affect mental and physical health.
In 2022, the Senate unanimously approved a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent.
The Sunshine Protection Act was introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — Trump’s pick to lead the State Department — but never received a vote in the House.
Rubio reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act last year, and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) put forward his own version of the bill in the House. Both languished in committees.
“This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid,” the Florida Republican senator said at the time, noting that “locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support.”
A 2021 AP-NORC poll found that 75% of Americans are against seasonal time adjustments.
Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that have locked their clocks, following standard time throughout the whole year.
The origins of daylight saving time date back to World War I, when the Standard Time Act of 1918 was passed in an effort to conserve energy for the war effort.
Entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — tapped by Trump to make government more efficient — have signaled they’d support eliminating clock changes.
“Looks like the people want to abolish the annoying time changes!” Musk wrote on X last month.
To which Ramaswamy replied, “It’s inefficient & easy to change.”
