WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Trump is pressuring Senate Republicans to make daylight saving time permanent and blaming Sen. Tom Cotton for delaying the legislation.
- The House passed the Sunshine Protection Act in July by a vote of 308 to 117.
- Cotton warns that permanent daylight saving time would leave children and workers traveling in darkness during winter mornings.
- Senate Majority Leader John Thune has questioned whether the measure can secure the 60 votes required to advance.
President Trump is intensifying pressure on Senate Republicans to advance legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent.
He is also blaming Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, for holding up the bipartisan proposal to end clock changes twice each year.
The House passed the Sunshine Protection Act in July by a vote of 308 to 117. Trump has renamed the proposal the “No More Changing of Clocks Act,” but the measure has not cleared the Senate.
Trump made his case in a lengthy Truth Social post early Friday, presenting the current system as expensive, disruptive and broadly unpopular. He argued that repeatedly changing clocks affects crime, stress, sports and numerous other parts of American life.
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“A ridiculous Clock changing process that takes place twice a year, costs our Country a fortune, is bad for Crime, stress on people, Sports, and just about everything else you can imagine,” Trump wrote.
The president also argued that Americans generally prefer more daylight during the evening instead of the morning. His push seeks to lock in daylight saving time rather than continuing the seasonal switch between daylight saving time and standard time.
“People don’t want to go around changing their Clocks anymore and, besides, far and away, most people like having an hour of extra sunlight in the evening, rather than in the morning,” Trump added.
Image Credit: Beachside Stock
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Trump specifically singled out Cotton, whose reelection bid the president has endorsed. He said the legislation was being “held up” by the Arkansas senator “for reasons unknown.”
Cotton has emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of making daylight saving time permanent. He has warned that later winter sunrises would force children to travel to school in darkness while millions of Americans also head to work before sunrise.
“If permanent daylight saving time becomes the law of the land, it will again make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans,” Cotton said last year.
Trump, however, contends that an additional hour of evening daylight would reduce crime and traffic accidents.
He has also said the change would support public health and benefit sports, tourism, restaurants and retail.
The president brought farmers into his argument as well, saying they would benefit from additional evening time to harvest crops. He framed ending the clock changes as an issue capable of drawing support from Republicans, Democrats and independents.
“People are sick and tired of having to change their Clocks twice a year. Even most farmers would rather have additional time in the evening to harvest their crops,” Trump wrote.
He followed that argument with a blunt assessment of the current system. “It is foolish, inconvenient and, in some cases, very costly,” Trump added.
Image Credit: Beachside Stock
Congress has tried a permanent daylight saving time system before. In early 1974, lawmakers moved most of the country to daylight saving time throughout the year in response to the energy crisis.
That experiment quickly encountered resistance as winter sunrises came later. Concerns mounted about children traveling to school before daylight, and lawmakers ended the arrangement during the fall of that year.
More recently, the Senate unanimously approved similar legislation in 2022. That attempt stalled in the House, leaving the twice yearly clock changes in place.
This time, the legislative situation is reversed. The House has approved the proposal, while its fate remains uncertain in the Senate despite Trump’s increasingly public pressure on members of his own party.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota has raised doubts about whether the proposal can attract the 60 votes required to advance.
With Cotton publicly opposed and the necessary Senate support uncertain, Trump’s clock campaign still faces a formidable legislative obstacle.
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