Will Donald Trump “Lock the Clock”?

Based on current statements from US President-elect Donald Trump, the US might do away with DST as early as next year.

Currently, 20 states have enacted legislation or passed resolutions for permanent DST. Some of those states made the provision contingent on neighboring states doing the same thing. Additionally, California’s move has been authorized by voters.

However, any move to permanent DST requires approval from Congress at the national level. More than 550 bills and resolutions have been considered at the state level advocating for year-round DST, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Hate clock changes? This expert disagrees

Because recent permanent DST bills have stalled in the US Congress, there have been more recent efforts to focus on a move to permanent standard time instead.

Nothing has come of these proposals so far, but this might change when Donald Trump becomes president again next year.

“Unnecessary, Stupid, and the Worst”

“An “inconvenient” and unnecessary financial burden on the United States.” This is how Trump describes Daylight Saving Time.

He gets support from Elon Musk, who has also expressed criticism of DST on his social media platform, X. In a recent post, he referred to DST as “the worst,” highlighting the widespread confusion and inconvenience it causes.

Negative health effects of DST

Florida Senator Marco Rubio, the man behind the Sunshine Protection Act, has also argued for this solution for years:

Failed the Last Time

The US states wanting to “ditch the switch” have two options: Under current U.S. federal law, states are allowed to adopt permanent standard time at any time. However, permanent Daylight Saving Time (DST) is not currently permitted without congressional approval.

It is, as yet, unclear which option Trump favors. However, in 2019, he signaled support for permanently staying on DST.

“Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!” Trump tweeted back then.

Keeping Daylight Saving Time all year would move sunrise and sunset times 1 hour later in the day, resulting in darker mornings and more daylight in the afternoon.

In sync with circadian rhythms

Some experts warn that using DST year-round isn’t a good solution and, based on historical precedent, may prove unpopular:

“In my experience, during winter, people want daylight after waking up in the morning rather than later in the day, ” says Dr. David Prerau, an internationally recognized expert on DST.

Year-round DST was in use in the US in 1974, but soon became an unpopular solution:

He elaborates: “They didn’t like getting up in the winter in the dark, going to work in the dark, and especially sending their kids to school in the dark. The sunrises in the winter got very late, around 8:30 or 9:00 am, in places like Minneapolis and Seattle. It became unpopular very quickly, and Congress repealed it after the first year.”

The Overlooked Advantages

In Dr. Preraus’s opinion, the DST debate puts too much focus on the negative sides of seasonal clock changes:

“When people think about DST, they often think about the negative effect of losing an hour of sleep one day of the year when we set the clocks for summertime. What they don’t think about is that by doing that, we gain 238 days in the spring, summer, and fall with all the benefits of lighter evenings and 118 days in the winter without the very late sunrises,” he says.

“The current system is the best of both worlds,” says DST expert Dr. David Prerau.

Because recent permanent DST bills have stalled in the US Congress, there have been more recent efforts to focus on a move to permanent standard time instead. A nonprofit lobby group called Save Standard Time claims that standard time (also known as normal time or winter time) is an approximation of solar time.

Dr. Prerau argues that any state can opt to have Permanent Standard Time just by passing the law, but only two states have chosen it, Hawaii and Arizona:

“This is for a very particular reason. Hawaii is the southernmost state and closest to the equator, so sunrise and sunset don’t change that much year-round. In Arizona, it’s so hot in the summer that people don’t want an extra hour of daylight in the evening. Because of the temperature, they look forward to the Sun setting so that they can go outdoors in the evening.”

History: When Did DST Start in the USA?

In 1916, during World War I, Germany became the first country to adopt DST to save energy for the war effort. Many countries across Europe soon followed suit. In the US, “Fast Time,” as it was called then, was first introduced in 1918.

Proposals to stay on standard time or move to full-time DST appear on the legislative agenda in the United States nearly every clock change. For now, Daylight Saving Time is set to begin on March 9, 2025.

Even if Donald Trump abolishes DST in the US, it is yet unclear when the last clock change will happen. We will publish updates and update our time zone database as events unfold.