Washington DC: Donald Trump has announced plans to end Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the US, claiming it would save the country money.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, he expressed his intention to work with the Republican Party to eliminate the practice of changing clocks twice a year.
Trump said that, “The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time (DST), which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!”
Trump criticized DST as “inconvenient” and “costly,” stating that it had a strong but unnecessary following. Many U.S. states advance their clocks in March and reverse them in November to optimize daylight during the summer months.
The debate around DST is ongoing, not just in the U.S., but also in other countries like the UK. The practice, initially introduced in Germany during World War I, has been in place in most U.S. states since the 1960s, although some, such as Arizona and Hawaii, do not observe the time change.
While some support DST for its economic benefits and brighter afternoons, critics argue that it leads to negative effects, such as increased health issues and children walking to school in the dark.
The president-elect has some support for his plans to scrap DST altogether, with his push for change aligning with efforts in around 30 U.S. states that have proposed legislation to end the clock changes.
A Senate vote in 2022 aimed to make DST permanent, but the measure failed to pass in the House.
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