Donald Trump calls time to turn back the clock | american news

On By Littum

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

Writing on his social media site, Truth Social, he said he would try to stop the practice of changing watches every spring and fall.

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

“Daylight saving time is inconvenient and very expensive for our nation,” Mr. Trump added.

Many US states set clocks forward one hour in March and back one hour in November to maximize daylight during the summer months.

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

Time to stop messing with the clocks?

DST was first introduced in Germany as a measure during World War I due to wartime coal shortages and power outages.

The United Kingdom also adopted the changes soon after, and while the United States briefly tried daylight saving time, it was only for seven months and was not reinstated until 1942 during World War II.

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

DST has been in place in nearly every US state since the 1960s, but some don’t change their clocks at all, such as Arizona and Hawaii.

Proponents of staying on daylight saving time argue that it leads to brighter afternoons and evenings and more economic activity during the winter months.

Critics say it forces children to go to school in the dark, as the measure delays sunrise by an hour and the biannual clock change causes sleep disturbances and health problems.

The president-elect has some support for his plans to scrap daylight saving time altogether.

Since 2015, about 30 states have introduced or passed legislation to stop the twice-yearly change of clocks, with some states proposing to do so only if neighboring states do the same.

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