Trump Reveals He Wants to End Seasonal Time Changes

Donald Trump called for the end of daylight saving time in a post on Truth Social Friday.

“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,” the president-elect wrote—a position that’s the opposite of what he said as president.

“Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!” Trump wrote in 2019.

His change in stance might have something to do with how DOGE heads Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy posted last month that they wanted to end the changing of the clock.

Most American adults dislike the twice yearly practice of changing their clocks back and forward, but are uncertain whether they want daylight saving time or standard time to be permanent. Trump has not signaled which he would pick.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, last year reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act, which had been unanimously approved by the Senate in 2022 but hasn’t made it out of the House. That legislation, which would make daylight saving time permanent, was co-sponsored by Republicans and Democrats, including Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville and Massachusetts’ Ed Markey.

Standard time, in place during the winter, extends daylight in the morning. Daylight saving time, used during the summer, extends daylight in the evenings.

Congress made daylight saving time permanent in the 1970s, but that experiment was short-lived due to public opinion souring on it. Parents, for instance, worried about morning traffic accidents involving their children, who were going to school when it was still dark out.

The most recent change to daylight saving time occurred in 2005, when the Energy Policy Act extended it by about four weeks, from March to November instead of April to October.

Twenty states have passed bills enacting year-round daylight saving time, though they can’t be implemented without federal action. Arizona and Hawaii both have permanent standard time.