Donald Trump calls time on turning the clocks back | US News

Donald Trump wants to scrap daylight saving time across the US, which the president-elect claims will save money.

Posting on his social media site, Truth Social, he said he would try to end the practice of changing clocks each spring and autumn.

“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time (DST), which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!”

“Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” Mr Trump added.

Many US states put clocks forward one hour in March and back an hour in November to maximise daylight during the summer months.

There has been a long-running debate about the policy, not only in America but elsewhere including the UK.

Time to stop messing with the clocks?

DST was first introduced in Germany as a measure during the First World War due to wartime coal shortages and air-raid blackouts.

The UK also adopted the changes soon after and while the US did briefly dabble in DST, it was only for seven months and was not reintroduced until 1942 during the Second World War.

Read more from Sky News:
Prince Andrew statement on China ‘spy’
Syrians celebrate ‘Victory Day’
US charges N Koreans in ID theft case

DST has been in place in nearly all US states since the 1960s but some do not change their clocks at all, such as Arizona and Hawaii.

Supporters of remaining on DST argue it leads to brighter afternoons and evenings and more economic activity during the winter months.

Critics say it forces children to walk to school in darkness since the measure delays sunrise by an hour, and the bi-annual changing of clocks causes sleep disturbance and health issues.

The president-elect has some support for his plans to scrap DST altogether.

Since 2015, about 30 states have introduced or passed legislation to end the twice-yearly changing of clocks, with some states proposing to do it only if neighbouring states do the same.

In March 2022, the US Senate voted unanimously to make DST permanent but the effort stalled in the House after politicians could not reach an agreement.