Washington — President-elect Donald Trump said Republicans will try to end the decades-long ritual of changing the clocks twice a year, saying the GOP will push to eliminate daylight saving time.
“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday.
Though Trump in the past has supported making daylight saving time permanent — that is, keeping clocks shifted one hour ahead, which happens in the spring — his latest comment called for daylight saving time to be eliminated. Daylight saving time ends in the fall when clocks turn back one hour.
CBS News has reached out to his spokesperson for clarification.
Congress enacted daylight saving time in 1918 to add additional daylight hours and help conserve energy during World War I. It was implemented again during World War II. In 1973, Congress briefly made daylight saving time permanent, but reversed course just months later after public opinion soured on the experiment. The current practice of starting daylight saving time on the second Sunday in March and ending it on the first Sunday in April was enacted under President George W. Bush.
Ending the biannual ritual would require congressional approval.
The Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act in March 2022 that would have made daylight saving time permanent the next year. But the bill was never taken up in the House.
In October, Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who is Trump’s pick to lead the State Department, and Sen. Edward Markey, an Oregon Democrat, called on Congress to pass the legislation.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who Trump has tapped to lead the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, also recently commented on the clock changes, with Musk calling it “annoying” and Ramaswamy saying it’s “inefficient.”