Donald Trump wants to end America’s century-old practice of “springing forward” and “falling back.”
“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” the president-elect wrote Friday on his social media platform TruthSocial. “Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”
Any effort to permanently change the nation’s clocks would require the cooperation of Congress, which has been gridlocked over recent time-change legislation – and whether it makes sense to end daylight saving time or adopt it year-round instead.
The practice of shifting clocks forward one hour in March and back one hour in November is intended to maximize Americans’ exposure to sunlight during working hours, but it has long been derided for causing groggy mornings, missed appointments and even some public health problems.
Trump’s announcement aligns him with public health professionals, who have long said that daylight saving time does not comport with humans’ natural circadian rhythms and that the clock changes each spring and fall are linked to a greater risk of heart attacks, stroke and car accidents. Other countries have banished daylight saving time, with Mexico in 2022 moving to abolish the practice. The country’s president at the time, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and his allies cited health issues, educational problems such as student drowsiness and other drawbacks.
But ending daylight saving time would put Trump at odds with some of his allies, such as Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, who have helped lead a bipartisan effort to adopt year-round daylight saving time. Their argument: Extending daylight saving time into the winter would give Americans more time to be outside during sunny hours.
“My Sunshine Protection Act would end this stupid practice of changing our clocks back and forth,” Rubio said in a statement in March, referencing his legislation. Rubio is Trump’s selection to serve as the next secretary of state.
Ending daylight saving time would also mean earlier sunrises across the country, where 48 states follow the practice of moving their clocks forward each spring. Sunrise in D.C. would begin as early as 4:42 a.m. on some days in June, if Trump’s plan is successful.
A March 2023 YouGov poll found that 62% of Americans want to end the practice of changing the clocks, but there was little consensus over what to do next. Half of respondents said they wanted year-round daylight saving time, just under one-third wanted permanent standard time and the remainder said they were unsure or had no opinion.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, both of whom Trump tapped to lead a commission on eliminating government waste, recently mused about ending Americans’ clock changes but have not specified whether they would push for ending daylight saving time or making it year-round.
Some Americans have said they oppose “daylight saving time,” only to clarify that they are opposed to the annual clock changes and not the practice of enjoying more daylight in summer hours. It is not yet clear whether Trump – who has occasionally made policy pronouncements before walking them back as he learned more – is among them.
The United States attempted to end daylight saving time 50 years ago, under President Richard M. Nixon, but the decision almost immediately backfired amid widespread reports of children waiting in the dark for school buses to arrive, anecdotes about car accidents and other frustrations. Congress rolled back the change after 10 months.
Lawmakers instead steadily pushed to lengthen the number of days that Americans spend under daylight saving time, extending that period in 1985 and again in 2005. Most Americans now live with daylight saving time for 238 days a year – nearly eight months. (Two states, Hawaii and most of Arizona, have opted out of the semiannual time changes and remain on permanent standard time, which states are allowed to do.)
The battle reached a crescendo in 2022, when the Senate surprisingly passed the Sunshine Protection Act in a unanimous vote. But the bill died in the House amid questions over whether year-round daylight saving time was actually safe or healthy, and also galvanized new resistance from medical groups that opposed the idea.
In an interview earlier this year, Tuberville said he was optimistic that Republican leaders of the House would be more favorable to the legislation than the Democrats who led the chamber in 2022. He also said he believed his Senate colleagues would support another bill for permanent daylight saving time – and that it would capture popular support.
“I’m doing this for the people,” Tuberville said in an interview earlier this year, adding that he had “got more calls” about addressing clock changes than other policies he had worked on.
Other lawmakers are more skeptical about a legislative compromise.
Rep. Frank J. Pallone Jr., D-New Jersey – who served as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2022, which reviewed the daylight saving time legislation – said he heard from a range of constituents and colleagues who agreed that the clock changes were annoying but disagreed about how to address it. In an interview this month, Pallone said he was curious how Musk and Ramaswamy’s clock-change plan would play out.
“There’s no consensus,” Pallone said. “I wish them luck.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is found on our FAQs. You can modify your screen name here.
Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday as well as limited hours on Saturday and Sunday. Comments held for moderation outside of those hours may take longer to approve.
Join the Conversation
Please sign into your Press Herald account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe. Questions? Please see our FAQs.