WASHINGTON (AP) — The President of the United States, Donald Trump, urged Congress on Friday to "push hard to have more light at the end of the day" in his latest comment on the biannual time change.
In a post on his platform Truth Social, Trump said that it would be “very popular and, most importantly, no more time changes, a great inconvenience and, for our government, a very costly event.”
Why does Trump want to set Daylight Saving Time?
The Republican president’s position of asking for more daylight would keep the country on daylight saving time (DTS). His statement came a day after a Senate panel heard testimonies to examine whether to establish a single schedule throughout the year instead of changing it.
There has been a growing interest in states to standardize time in recent years and avoid changes.
But daylight saving time, when clocks are set forward by one hour from spring to fall compared to standard time, is recognized in most of the country. It was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942.
Last year, Trump asked the Republican Party to eliminate daylight saving time, arguing that it was “inconvenient and very costly for our nation.” However, he retracted that call last month with another social media post stating that it was a “50-50 issue.”
Now the president said he would like to have more light later in the day, but others prefer more light early so they don’t have to take their children to school in the dark.
In 2022, the Senate unanimously approved a measure to make daylight saving time permanent throughout the United States, but it did not progress.
What is better: daylight saving time or standard time?
The magazine The Economist, in a recent article, favored the idea of eliminating daylight saving time changes in the United States and Europe, arguing that “the disruption it causes in people’s lives accumulates. Immediately after the time change, the resulting sleep deprivation is associated with an increase in the number of heart attacks and strokes.”
But contrary to Trump’s wishes, one of the most prestigious English-language magazines recommends sticking to standard time or “winter time”: “Humans have evolved over millennia to be in tune with the Sun. Biological clocks rely on intense light in the morning and its absence at night. Daylight saving time, which lengthens the evenings, distances people from the natural cycle. This means they miss out on the bright blue light of the morning, which resets the biological clock.”
Trump has not presented any arguments to push for daylight saving time.