CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump said Friday that Republicans would seek to abolish daylight saving time, calling it “inconvenient” and “costly.”
“Republicans will do everything in their power to abolish daylight saving time, which has a small but powerful base, but they shouldn’t! Daylight saving time is an inconvenience and very costly to our country,” Trump said in a statement. Posted on Social.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the president-elect’s pick to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency, also recently said they support abolishing the twice-yearly “setback and leap forward” ritual that requires parliamentary approval. .
Other goals Musk and Ramaswamy have set for the department have been criticized as unmanageable or impossible, but changing the clock every six months is a tradition that has lost its appeal to many voters. This was revealed in a public opinion poll.
And if implemented, this change would have far-reaching implications, affecting the way hundreds of millions of people start and end their days. It’s also an idea that some key members of the incoming Trump administration and the Republican Senate caucus have vocally supported for years.
Most states in the United States move their clocks forward in March and back in November in an effort to balance the amount of sunlight people receive that day. Some proponents of the change favor permanent standard time, keeping clocks as they are year-round from November to March. This could result in earlier sunrises and sunsets, more morning light, and less evening light than usual in some parts of the country during those five months. This approach is supported by medical groups and experts who claim it best matches the body’s natural circadian rhythm.
Some people support permanent daylight saving time. The sun rose and set later, giving people less sunlight in the morning and more light in the evening. This approach is often supported by retail, business, and restaurant associations and organizations that want to ensure that people have enough sunlight to go out and participate in economic activities after work or school, and , is also supported by those who argue that more evening sunlight would reduce crime. .
The reasons for supporting either side in this debate are as different as each person’s personal life experiences. Some parents may prefer their children not waiting for the bus on dark mornings, while others may prefer to have some sunshine while watching their children practice sports after school. yeah.
President Trump has expressed support for abolishing clock changes in the past, tweeting in 2019, “I don’t mind making daylight saving time permanent!”
Previous attempts to do so have failed. Daylight saving time was first introduced during World War I and was introduced to aid the country’s industrial productivity during World War I. This is not to give farmers more daylight during the harvest season, as is often the case.
Daylight saving time remained permanent for most of World War II for reasons related to industry and energy. During the 1970s gas crisis, the country again tried to make daylight saving time permanent, but public support plummeted after complaints of children being hit by cars while waiting for buses at night.
States do not have to change their clocks. Hawaii, most of Arizona, and some U.S. territories in the Pacific and Caribbean do not observe daylight saving time. In 2022, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, but the House of Representatives failed to take it to a vote. And last year, a bipartisan group of senators reintroduced a bill to switch to permanent daylight saving time. Now, with the potential support of the next president, the country may be preparing to make some new changes.
This article has been updated with additional reporting.
CNN’s Michael Williams contributed to this report.
