President-elect Donald Trump promised on Friday that the Republican Party will “use its best efforts” to end Daylight Saving Time as most Americans favor putting a stop to changing the clocks twice a year.
Daylight Saving Time, the time nearly every state recognizes for eight months out of the year, has been in effect nationwide since 1966 when the Uniform Time Act was passed. Today, only two states — Arizona and Hawaii — don’t recognize DST. Legislation eliminating DST passed by Congress and signed into law by the president would likely mandate that every state go back to recognizing Standard Time throughout the entire year.
“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 in a post on Truth Social.
The incoming Trump administration first signaled that ending DST was on the table earlier this month when the idea was floated by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a new agency led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
“Looks like the people want to abolish the annoying time changes!” Musk posted on X last month. Ramaswamy responded to Musk’s post, writing, “It’s inefficient & easy to change.”
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While a majority of Americans are in favor of ending the twice-per-year time change, there is disagreement on whether the country should recognize DST or Standard Time.
In 2022, the Senate unanimously passed a measure to make DST permanent. Trump said in 2019 that making DST permanent was “O.K.” with him. That move, however, wasn’t popular with many people who want to keep the clocks in Standard Time, which is the time usually recognized from November until March. Many doctors and scientists say that Standard Time is better for people’s health because it is more aligned with the body’s internal clock and sleep cycle.
The Sunshine Protection Act, Sen. Marco Rubio’s bill to keep DST permanent that was passed by the Senate in 2022, was never taken up by the House. Rubio reintroduced the bill in 2023, but it remains stuck in committee.
