President-elect Donald J. Trump called daylight saving time “inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation” in a social media post on Friday and said the Republican Party would try to “eliminate” it, in the latest effort to end the twice-yearly time change.
Most states change their time by one hour — in March, when clocks spring forward, and in November, when clocks fall back.
Over the years, many elected officials, including Mr. Trump, have expressed support for ending the changes.
“Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is OK with me!” Mr. Trump posted on social media in March 2019.
He reiterated his support for such a move on Friday, posting on X, “The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!”
On social media, there was support for Mr. Trump’s post.
Many people called the time changes antiquated. Some noted that daylight saving time would most likely not be eliminated, as his post suggested, but rather would be made permanent, and the time changes would be eliminated.
Ending the clock change would require the approval of Congress. There have been many bipartisan efforts to pass such a bill, but all have failed. In 2022, the Senate unanimously passed a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, but it died in the House. An effort to pass a similar bill in 2023 also failed.
The idea behind daylight saving time is to move an hour of sunlight from the early morning to the evening, so that people can make more use of daylight.
William Willet, an English builder, is credited with popularizing daylight saving time in the early 1900s, when he urged British lawmakers to shift the clocks to benefit the economy. Parliament rejected the proposal in 1909, but then embraced it a few years later under the pressures of World War I.
Other countries followed suit in an effort to cut energy costs, including the United States starting in March 1918. But there is no consensus on whether daylight saving time actually does reduce energy use.
Small-business owners say that when it stays light after work, people are more likely to go out and spend money. But many Americans consider the time switch a nuisance.
Parents say it throws off bedtimes for their children. And no one likes losing an hour of sleep when clocks move forward in March.
In 2020, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine called for an end to daylight saving time, saying that the change disrupts the body’s natural clock and can cause health issues.
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