Trump says GOP will push to eliminate daylight saving time
Dec 13, 2024
(The Hill) – President-elect Trump on Friday said Republicans would push 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.
Lawmakers have for years introduced bills to make daylight saving time permanent, but the legislation has struggled to make it through both chambers of Congress.
Permanent daylight saving time has been tried before – and it didn’t go well
Supporters of making daylight saving permanent, which would end the need for most Americans to turn the clocks back an hour in the fall, have argued it would allow for more sunlight later into the day, allowing people to enjoy the outdoors for longer.
But critics of the shift have argued it would mean it would remain dark out later into the morning, forcing children to go to school, and in some case wait for buses, in the dark.
Making standard time permanent would mean more sunlight earlier in the day throughout the year.
It was not immediately clear if Trump favored making daylight saving time or standard time permanent. The Hill reached out to the Trump transition team for clarification.
Most of the United States has observed daylight saving time since the 1960s, though it was first introduced by then-President Woodrow Wilson in 1918.