Trump calls for ending daylight saving. Some health professionals agree

Washington: Donald Trump wants to end the century-old practice of daylight saving time, or “springing forward” and “falling back”, as it is known in the US.

“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” the president-elect wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”

Any effort to permanently change the nation’s clocks would require the cooperation of Congress, which has been gridlocked over recent time-change legislation – and whether it makes sense to end daylight saving or adopt it year-round instead.

The practice of shifting clocks forward one hour in March and back in November is intended to maximise Americans’ exposure to sunlight during working hours, but it has long been derided for causing groggy mornings, missed appointments and even some public health problems.

Trump’s announcement aligns him with public health professionals, who have long said that daylight saving does not comport with humans’ natural circadian rhythms and that the clock changes each spring and autumn are linked to a greater risk of heart attacks, stroke and car accidents. Some countries have banished daylight saving: Brazil’s then-president Jair Bolsonaro abolished it in 2019, while Mexico moved to abolish the practice in 2022. Mexican president at the time, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and his allies cited health issues, educational problems such as student drowsiness and other drawbacks.

But ending daylight saving would put Trump at odds with some of his allies, such as Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who have helped lead a bipartisan effort to adopt the measure year-round. Their argument: extending daylight into winter would give Americans more time to be outside during sunny hours.

“My Sunshine Protection Act would end this stupid practice of changing our clocks back and forth,” Rubio said in a statement in March, referencing his legislation. Rubio is Trump’s selection to serve as the next secretary of state.

Ending daylight saving would also mean earlier sunrises across the country, where 48 states follow the practice. In Washington, without a one-hour delay, sunrise would begin as early as 4.42am on some days in June if Trump’s plan is successful.