President Donald Trump’s enthusiasm for ditching Daylight Saving Time, the practice of changing the clocks by an hour twice a year, has waned since taking office for the second time.
“It’s a 50-50 issue, and if something is a 50-50 issue, it’s hard to get excited about it,” Trump said this week after previously endorsing the change. “I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don’t want to take their kids to school in the dark.”
Trump said it was something he could address, but “a lot of people like it one way, a lot of people like it the other way. It’s very even. And usually I find when that’s the case, what else do we have to do?”
As recently as December, Trump was ready to get rid of Daylight Saving Time.
“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 wrote on Truth Social in December before taking office
Trump’s comments in December followed similar remarks from Department of Government Efficiency boss Elon Musk. Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has also been a longtime advocate of ditching the clock changes.
By law, clocks in most areas of the U.S. are adjusted ahead one hour in the spring and summer months – known as Daylight Saving Time – and returned back one hour in the winter months, known as standard time. The dates marking the beginning and end of Daylight Saving Time have changed as Congress has passed new statutes.
The U.S. is on standard time, or ST. Beginning Sunday at 2 a.m., most U.S. states will move to daylight saving time, or DST. Arizona and Hawaii do not observe DST.
Recent efforts to keep or get rid of Daylight Saving Time have failed. In March 2022, the Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act, sending it to the House for action. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi never brought the legislation up for a vote.
Not everyone is on board. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has opposed the Sunshine Protection Act. The AASM supports eliminating the biannual time changes in March and November but advocates for Congress to introduce legislation restoring permanent standard time.
“It is time to stop changing our clocks in the spring and fall, but making daylight saving time permanent is the wrong choice,” AASM President Jennifer Martin said. “The science is clear: Restoring permanent, year-round standard time is the best option for our health and well-being.”
Proponents say it could help reduce vehicle crashes by aligning daylight hours to drivers’ standard work hours; reduce risks for cardiac issues, stroke and seasonal depression; reduce energy usage and help the economy.
Congress enacted Daylight Savings Time in the U.S. after Germany’s 1916 effort to save fuel during World War I, and its period of observance has since been lengthened. Congress initially mandated it for six months. In 2005, Congress extended DST to begin the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. As a result, the United States now has eight months of DST and four months of standard time.
The United States has also gone through periods of year-round DST, including 1942-1945 and 1974-1975.
In 2022, a Monmouth University poll found about 1 in 3 Americans want to maintain this clock-resetting practice. A plurality would prefer to make daylight saving time permanent. Using standard time year-round had few supporters. Six in 10 Americans (61%) would do away with the nation’s twice-a-year time change while a little over one-third (35%) want to keep the existing practice. Those who want to stick with a single year-round time prefer to have later sunrise and sunset hours (44%) than the earlier setting offered by standard time (13%).
