Keeping daylight saving time year-round would be 'very popular,' Trump says
Trump's remarks on eliminating daylight saving time
President Donald Trump previously promised to eliminate daylight saving time. In March, he said it's a ‘50/50 issue,' and now he says Congress should keep daylight saving time year-round.
President Donald Trump is weighing in again on the time change debate in America – this time calling for Congress to "push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day," which means keeping daylight saving time year-round.
Trump, in a Friday post on his Truth Social media network, said it would be "Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!"
His post came a day after a Senate panel heard testimony examining whether to set one time all year instead of shifting.
What did Trump say about daylight saving time?
What they're saying:
In his post Friday, Trump’s position was to keep daylight saving time – meaning we wouldn’t change our clocks again in the fall.
Trump has flip-flopped on the issue a few times. Last year, he called for lawmakers to end daylight saving time and keep standard time year-round, but just last month, he said "it’s a 50/50 issue," so "it’s hard to get excited about it."
RELATED: Trump weighs in on daylight saving time debate
"I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don't want to take their kids to school in the dark," he said in March. "It’s something I can do … but a lot of people like it one way, a lot of people like it the other way. It's very even."
Trump calls daylight saving time 'inconvenient'
President-elect Donald Trump said before he took office that he wanted to end daylight saving time. Now, he says he wants to keep daylight saving time year-round.
Trump doesn’t have the authority as president to end time change. That has to be done by either Congress or the Secretary of Transportation. The Senate in 2022 unanimously approved a measure that would make daylight saving time permanent across the United States, but it did not advance.
What do Americans think about time change?
Daylight Saving Time: Can it cause health issues?
LiveNOW from FOX's Josh Breslow spoke to Dr. Jigme Sethi, physician executive of sleep medicine for Medical University of South Carolina’s Regional Health Network, about health issues stemming from daylight saving time.
By the numbers:
The majority of Americans, 54%, say they are ready to do away with time change, according to a poll run by Gallup from January 21-27, 2025.
Americans most commonly said they’d prefer keeping standard time the whole year (48%), even if it meant losing sunlight in the summertime.
RELATED: As daylight saving time approaches, most Americans say they're ready to end it
The American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine agrees and says sticking with standard time year-round aligns better with the sun — and human biology — for more consistent sleep.
What would it be like if Daylight Saving Time were year-round?
The other side:
During the 1970s energy crisis, the U.S. started doing daylight saving time all year long, and Americans didn’t like it. With the sun not rising in the winter in some areas till around 9 a.m. or even later, people were waking up in the dark, going to work in the dark and sending their children to school in the dark.
What would it be like if standard time were year-round?
Dig deeper:
Using standard time all year would mean losing that extra hour of daylight for eight months in the evenings in the United States.
The history of Daylight Saving Time
History of daylight saving time
Daylight saving time, or DST, was formally introduced in the U.S. in 1918 during World War I.
The backstory:
In the 1890s, George Vernon Hudson, an astronomer and entomologist in New Zealand, proposed a time shift in the spring and fall to increase the daylight. And in the early 1900s, British home builder William Willett, troubled that people weren’t up enjoying the morning sunlight, made a similar push. But neither proposal gained enough traction to be implemented.
Germany began using daylight saving time during World War I with the thought that it would save energy. Other countries, including the United States, soon followed suit. During World War II, the U.S. once again instituted what was dubbed "war time" nationwide, this time year-round.
In the United States today, every state except Hawaii and Arizona observes daylight saving time. Around the world, Europe, much of Canada and part of Australia also implement it, while Russia and Asia don’t currently.
After World War II, a patchwork of timekeeping emerged across the United States, with some areas keeping daylight saving time and others ditching it.
So in 1966, the U.S. Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which says states can either implement daylight saving time or not, but it has to be statewide. The act also mandates the day that daylight saving time starts and ends across the country.
The Source: This report includes information from The Associated Press, President Donald Trump, Gallup and previous LiveNow from FOX reporting. FOX's Megan Ziegler contributed.