Donald Trump Daylight Saving Time Push: Why the President Wants to End the Twice-Yearly Clock Change for Good

Millions of Americans do something that doesn’t make much sense anymore: they walk around their homes and reset their clocks, phones, microwaves, and car dashboards. In the process, they lose an hour of sleep in the spring and gain it back in the fall. Most of the time, they just wonder why this is still done in 2026. It looks like Donald Trump has been thinking the same thing.

One of Trump’s more unusual policy goals this term has been to push for permanent daylight saving time. The biannual clock change was called “ridiculous, twice yearly production” by him on Truth Social in May. He has also pushed Congress to pass the Sunshine Protection Act, which would keep the country on daylight saving time all year. The House delivered on July 14, 2026, by a vote of 308 to 117. A Tennessee representative, Rep. Scott DesJarlais, led the vote on the floor and played “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles on his phone while reading the results. Even though it was a vote on federal policy, the scene was small and strangely happy.

The bill itself is pretty easy to understand. If the Sunshine Protection Act is passed and signed into law, the country will always follow the schedule that is in place from March to November. There will be no more jumping forward or backward. Arizona and Hawaii already don’t use daylight saving time, but other states could choose not to. For most of the country, the clock would just stop changing. At least that’s the idea. The hard part is getting there.

The bill is now in the Senate, and, to be polite, the way there doesn’t look clear. One of the most vocal doubters is Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. He brought up a problem that he thinks doesn’t get enough attention: if we permanently switched to daylight saving time, the sun wouldn’t rise until 9 a.m. or later in some parts of the country, especially in the northern and western edges of time zones. That’s a real worry for kids waiting at bus stops in the dark, people who drive to work before dawn, and people who work the early shift and would go months without seeing any natural light on their way to work. In the excitement over a bipartisan House vote, these worries may not have been given as much attention as they deserve.

The leader of the Senate, John Thune, said he is “looking at it,” which in Senate language could mean a lot of different things. He said that forcing people to change the time had been tried before and failed. He was referring to an experiment that was tried briefly under President Nixon during the 1973 oil crisis. To save energy, Nixon signed a bill that would have kept daylight saving time in place for two years. Within a few months, most Americans were against it—the dark winter mornings were worse than anyone thought—and the law was quietly taken away. These kinds of arguments have never been as easy as they seem to be, thanks to history.

Trump seems to be getting more support from the people, even though the Senate doesn’t agree with him. A 2025 poll by AP and NORC found that most Americans don’t like when the clocks change. People don’t like being awake late. They don’t like the change. They aren’t sure if permanent daylight saving time or moving to permanent standard time, which scientists and sleep researchers have generally preferred, is the better solution. The Sunshine Protection Act only takes one side in that argument.

Representative Rich McCormick of Georgia, who used to work as a doctor in an emergency room, said that the adjustment that happens every two years is not only annoying, but it also hurts people’s health. He said that the disturbance leads to depression and changes in metabolism, and that stability is important from a medical point of view. There is real research to back up the idea that changes in the clock are linked to short-term rises in heart attacks, car accidents, and sleep problems. Experts are still arguing about whether or not permanent daylight saving time is the best medical solution. However, McCormick’s main point—that this isn’t just a scheduling problem—should be taken seriously.

The clocks will still “fall back” on November 1, 2026, as of right now. The Senate hasn’t set a date to vote. The House started a movement two weeks ago, but it hasn’t yet been carried out on the other side of the Capitol. This week, Trump put more pressure on the Senate, but in Washington, DC, when one chamber thinks something is important, it doesn’t always get their attention.

The fact that the Sunshine Protection Act passed the House 308–117, with votes from both parties, shows that people want to end the clock change and the desire to do so is real and growing. Congress might run out of reasons to do something that most people in the country already want them to stop at some point. That time hasn’t come yet.