On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump vowed that Republicans will use their “best efforts” to end the practice of Daylight Saving Time.
The practice began as a wartime measure in 1942, and was done in order to give people an extra hour of sunlight in the evening, with Google noting that it was practiced “generally with the goal of conserving energy by reducing the need for artificial lighting in the evening hours; essentially, it’s about making better use of natural daylight throughout the day.” The practice involves setting clocks forward one hour in the spring and back one hour in the fall, but it has become extremely controversial. In fact, it appears to be one of the only issues that every political affiliation can agree on.
Trump vowed in a post on social media to work to end Daylight Saving Time during his second term.
“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,” he wrote.
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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2024
On several occasions, lawmakers from both parties have proposed to put an end to Daylight Saving Time all together, with the most recent attempt being the now-stalled “Sunshine Protection Act,” which had bipartisan support.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who Trump nominated as Secretary of State, sponsored the legislation. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has also expressed support for the measure, arguing that “changing the clock twice a year is outdated and unnecessary.”
Even health experts have come out in favor of ending Daylight Saving Time, though they disagree on which time change to make permanent. Lawmakers want to keep the daylight saving time — the period where clocks are set one hour ahead of the standard time — while health experts want to make standard time permanent, the time when clocks are moved back one hour.
According to the Associated Press, “Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said that it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology.”
Meanwhile, most of the world does not observe Daylight Saving Time, but for “those that do, the date that clocks are changed varies, creating a complicated tapestry of changing time differences,” the AP noted. Even some states refuse to use the practice: Arizona and Hawaii.
