Source: CNN
President-elect Donald Trump said Friday the Republican Party would try to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, calling it “inconvenient” and “costly.”
“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom the president-elect has tapped to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, have also recently said they support eliminating the biannual ritual of falling back and springing forward, which would require congressional approval.
While other objectives floated by Musk and Ramaswamy for their department have been criticized as unwieldy or not possible, the semi-annual clock change is a tradition that has lost its appeal to many voters, polls have shown.
And the change, if enacted, would be sweepingly impactful, affecting how hundreds of millions of people start and end their days. It’s also an idea that some key members of Trump’s incoming administration and the Republican Senate caucus have vocally supported for years.
Most US states change their clocks forward in March and back in November, attempting to balance the amount of sunlight people receive on a given day. Some advocates for change support a permanent standard time, keeping the clocks as they are from November to March year-round. This would lead to parts of the country experiencing earlier sunrises and sunsets than they usually do during those five months – leaving more light in the morning and less in the evening. This approach is supported by medical groups and professionals who say it most closely aligns with the body’s natural circadian rhythm.
Others advocate for a permanent Daylight Saving Time. The sun would rise and set later, giving people less daylight in the morning and more in the evening. This approach is often supported by retail, business and restaurant groups and organizations that want people to have enough daylight left after work or school to be out and about and participating in the economy, and by those who say more daylight in the evening could reduce crime.
The reasons for supporting any side in this debate are as disparate as each individual’s own personal life experiences; some parents may prefer that their children not wait for the bus during a dark morning, while other parents may prefer there be some daylight while they watch their kids practice sports after school.
Trump has previously voiced support for ending the clock changes, tweeting in 2019: “Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!”
Previous attempts to do so have faltered. Daylight Saving Time was first introduced during World War I to assist with the nation’s industrial productivity during the Great War – not, as popular rumors frequently suggest, to give farmers more day time during harvest.
Daylight Saving Time was kept permanent during most of World War II, also for reasons to do with industry and energy. During the gas crisis in the 1970s, the country once again tried making Daylight Saving Time permanent, only for public approval to plummet after complaints of children being hit by cars while waiting for the bus at night.
States aren’t required to change their clocks; Hawaii, most of Arizona and some US territories in the Pacific and Caribbean do not observe Daylight Saving Time. In 2022, the US Senate passed legislation making Daylight Saving Time permanent, but the House failed to vote on it. And last year, a bipartisan group of senators reintroduced legislation that would make a switch to Daylight Saving Permanent. Now, with the possible support of the president-elect, the country may prepare to make another change – one way or the other.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.