Trump announces push to abolish daylight saving time

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Friday he will support eliminating daylight saving time, championing a long-debated initiative that would require action from Congress.

Trump announced his push to adopt standard time year-round, ending semi-annual time changes, in a post on his social media page Truth Social.

“The Republican Party will do its best to abolish Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but powerful constituency, but it shouldn’t!” Trump wrote. “Daylight saving time is inconvenient and very costly to our nation.”

The United States is currently on standard time, which caused clocks to go back an hour on November 3, resulting in early December sunsets that are often the subject of complaints. The country is expected to switch back to daylight saving time on March 9 next year.

Although eliminating daylight saving time would preserve the strikingly early winter evenings, the change would mean no more time changes, which some say is their biggest nuisance.

Tech entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who are set to lead the Trump administration’s efforts aimed at reducing government costs and increasing efficiency, had signaled their support for eliminating daylight saving time. “Looks like people want to get rid of the annoying time changes,” Musk wrote in a post on X last month.

Daylight saving time is observed in all but two states. (Under the Uniform Time Act of 1966, states can opt out of daylight saving time.) But even among those who want to do away with time changes, there is debate about whether daylight saving time or standard time should be the right choice.

More:Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy outline plan for “large-scale layoffs” of federal staff under Trump

In 2022, the Senate passed bipartisan legislation with unanimous consent to make daylight saving time permanent — and keep later sunsets — but it stalled in the House. The bill was co-sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, a Trump ally and the new president’s nominee for secretary of state.

Health experts say time changes disrupt the body’s circadian rhythm and release hormones. But most are opposed to keeping daylight saving time permanently, citing evidence that it is harder for us to jump forward an hour in March than to go back in November.

“The medical and scientific community agrees … that permanent standard time is better for human health,” said Erik Herzog, a professor of biology and neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis and former president of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms.

Polls suggest Americans support Trump’s idea of abolishing Daylight Saving Time.

According to an October 2021 Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, about 43% want year-round standard time, 32% want permanent daylight saving time and 25% want to stay with the status quo. For now, and at least for the near future, most Americans will continue to contend with the unsettling time changes that occur about twice a year.

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