Donald Trump announces radical plan to ‘end Daylight Saving Time’ to save on costs
Donald Trump has announced that the Republican Party will seek to make a dramatic change to Daylight Saving time in the United States.
The practice, which shifts clocks forwards or backwards by an hour in Spring and Autumn was introduced to make better use of the daylight as months become darker.
Trump made the statement on Friday, with the move signalling a potential major shift in how Americans manage their clocks throughout the year.
Trump stated that the Republican Party “will use its best efforts” to end the practice.
He said: “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.”
There are a number of reasons for using Daylight Saving Time, first established by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, including saving energy, mental health and crime reduction.
It is also backed by the oil and gas industry as people tend to drive more if it is still light after work.
His radical statement comes just a day after he was named as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2024.
The President-elect won the accolade once before in 2016, following his first presidential election victory over Hillary Clinton.
The Republican celebrated by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
His second election win is “history-making in multiple ways”, Time said when it announced the shortlist.
Trump is one of 14 US presidents who have received the recognition, including his predecessor and successor President Joe Biden.
The shortlist also included his opponent in the Presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as Kate Middleton, Elon Musk and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Time already announced WNBA star Caitlin Clark as Athlete of the Year, Elton John as Icon of the Year and Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices as CEO of the Year.
Last year, pop megastar Taylor Swift won the accolade. To mark the magazine cover reveal, Time CEO Jessica Sibley rang the opening bell.
Speaking to Time Magazine about his election victory, he said: “I think we ran a flawless campaign. It was, it was really quite something. I called it 72 Days of Fury. There were no days off. There were no timeouts. If you made a mistake, it would be magnified at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. So you couldn’t make a mistake.
“I think we just really ran well. It was a drive to go through it. It started 72 days out. For some reason, it just seemed to be it.
“I worked very hard. I’ve been given credit by, actually, the reporters that followed me, because it was, you know, just, it just was all the time, every day, and we said the right things. We said things that were on the minds of the country. I think the Democrats didn’t get it.
“They just kept going back to the same old nonsense. And it was nonsense, especially in where we are right now. And we hit something that was very special. We hit the nerve of the country.”