President-elect Donald Trump has announced his intention to eliminate daylight saving time, calling the practice outdated, inconvenient, and economically costly.
In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump pledged to prioritize the abolition of daylight saving time once he takes office.
“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” Trump wrote. “Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”
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Daylight saving time, introduced in 1942 as a wartime measure to conserve energy by optimizing daylight, has faced criticism for decades. The practice requires Americans to set clocks forward each spring and back each fall.
Critics argue that the biannual time change disrupts sleep patterns, impacts productivity, and offers little measurable energy savings in modern times.
Trump’s announcement aligns with recent legislative efforts to end daylight saving time. One prominent push came in the form of the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023, a bipartisan bill spearheaded by Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
The act proposed making daylight saving time permanent to avoid the twice-yearly clock changes. However, the legislation stalled in Congress, leaving the future of daylight saving time unresolved.
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Rubio, who has been nominated by Trump to serve as his secretary of state, has long advocated for ending the practice.
Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott also voiced support for the movement, stating, “Changing the clock twice a year is outdated and unnecessary.”
This is not the first time Trump has addressed the topic. In 2019, while serving as president, Trump expressed openness to making daylight saving time permanent, stating in a tweet, “Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!”
As Trump prepares to take office, his renewed push to abolish daylight saving time is expected to garner attention from lawmakers and the public alike, reigniting a debate that has persisted for decades.
Whether Congress will act on Trump’s proposal remains uncertain, but the call for reform reflects growing momentum to address an issue that has divided Americans for generations.
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