President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he and Republicans would seek to permanently eliminate daylight saving time when he takes office.
In a post on TruthSocial, Trump wrote: “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.”
Two of Trump’s top advisers, tech mogul Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, whom the president-elect has tapped to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, have also floated the idea of eliminating time changes.
“Looks like the people want to abolish the annoying time changes!” Musk wrote on X last month.
Ramaswamy replied to him, writing, “It’s inefficient & easy to change.”
Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s son, also replied to Musk’s post but seemed to share an opposite position from his father’s.
“Leave it daylight savings time always,” Trump Jr. wrote, adding in several emojis of the number “100,” signifying his agreement with Musk.
The younger Trump’s position is consistent with a bill the Senate passed in 2022 that would have made daylight saving time permanent beginning the following year.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., backed the proposal again in 2023 after it stalled in the House. Trump has said he will nominate Rubio to be his next Secretary of State. It’s unclear who would replace him if he is confirmed, but Lara Trump, the president-elect’s daughter-in-law, has been floated as a potential candidate.
The 2022 bill was co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of senators, including Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., Rick Scott, R-Fla., Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Ed Markey, D-Mass.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to questions from NBC News clarifying whether Trump seeks to eliminate daylight saving time or make it permanent.
Daylight saving time began in the U.S. in 1918 to save energy during the World War I, but certain parts of the country have eschewed the practice. Hawaii and some parts of Arizona do not participate in daylight saving time.
