Is Donald Trump really looking to get rid of Daylight Saving Time?

Donald Trump isn’t even in office yet and his proposed policies are already driving Americans closer to the edge.

His appointments so far lean on many of the absolute worst people the country has to offer, from the rampant sexual assaulters, to the soulless mega-wealthy and utterly incompetent. His plans for the future are just as unabashedly self-serving, from yet more tax cuts for the super-affluent, to tariffs that will drag down the average American even further. Things are not looking good for anyone outside of the top 1% of earners, and they’re only getting worse as Trump’s second term inches closer.

We’ve got an interesting four years ahead of us, that’s for sure, and Trump seems to select fresh hare-brained schemes on the daily to throw his behind. The latest rumor claims the incoming president is set to target Daylight Saving Time next, something that’s proven challenging in the past.

Does Trump really want to get rid of Daylight Saving Time?

Among Trump’s many ill-advised proposals, the elimination of Daylight Saving Time seems rather paltry. Its not likely to trash the economy or do away with any of our rights, and it is an annoyance to alter those clocks twice a year, so it lands far from the top of Americans list of Trump-related anxieties.

It is something Trump has proposed, but only time — perhaps standard time — will tell whether or not he’s successful in his aims. Trump told the world, via a post to Truth Social, that he aims to “eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” Trump went on to call the decades-old practice “inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”

Daylight Saving Time first became a country-wide norm in 1942. It’s largely been common practice since, and is used as a means to maximize daylight hours as the seasons change. Health experts propose a permanent change, making standard time the norm across the nation, but its unclear exactly what Trump aims to do, other than eliminate the changing of clocks twice a year.

According to health groups cited by the Associated Press, “standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology.” Embracing a country-wide standard time would both eliminate the annoyance of jumping forward and back as the seasons change, and — according to experts like those at the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine — Americans would benefit from it.

Trump has proposed a laundry list of potential actions he aims to pursue once he’s in office, but last time around he ditched many of his campaign promises once he reached the White House. It’s entirely reasonable to expect him to do the same this time around, and promises like eliminating Daylight Saving Time are sure to take second-tier to some of Trump’s more central pledges.

Most countries outside of the U.S. do not observe Daylight Saving Time, and those that do don’t follow the same schedule as the States. It tends to create broad confusion when clocks are changed, as weeks sometimes separate different regions’ time changes, but it’s something people have become accustomed to over the decades.