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Trump Says He Will Work to 'Abolish' Daylight Savings Time

Sarah Arnold
Sarah Arnold  |  December 13, 2024 8:30 PM

President-elect Donald Trump is making headlines again as he champions a movement to end daylight saving time, a practice that has sparked debate for years. Trump, who calls daylight saving time “inconvenient,” is working to transition the clock to follow standard time permanently. As he rallied support for this initiative, he suggested the move would restore the country's fortitude. 

Trump claimed that Daylight Saving Time has been “very costly to our nation,” saying that the Republican Party would use its best effort to “abolish it.” The long controversial move was first implemented in the U.S. during World War I to conserve fuel and energy by maximizing daylight hours. Advocates for the measure say it saves energy and encourages outdoor activity during extended daylight, while critics argue it disrupts sleep and productivity and can be more harmful than helpful.

Some Republican lawmakers believe Daylight Saving Time year-round could benefit retail and tourism, while others say it is an outdated practice, 

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the top leaders for Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), have also argued that the U.S. should stop observing Daylight Savings Time, calling it inefficient. 

In 2022, the Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which would have made daylight saving time permanent throughout the year. However, the bill faced challenges in the House of Representatives and, ultimately, was not passed. Other lawmakers attempted to pass similar bills, with some allowing individual states to decide whether to abolish it. 

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According to a 2022 Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, nearly 60 percent of Americans want to eliminate the biannual clock changes.