President Donald Trump on Friday urged Congress to “push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day” in his latest dig at the semiannual changing of clocks.
Trump, in a post on his Truth Social media network, said it would be “Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!”
The Republican president’s position calling for more daylight would push the schedule forward, keeping the country on daylight saving time. His post came a day after a Senate panel heard testimony examining whether to set one time all year instead of shifting.
There has been growing interest in states to standardize daylight saving time in recent years.
But daylight saving time, when clocks are set from spring to fall one hour ahead of standard time, is still recognized in most parts of the country. It was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942.
Trump last year called for the Republican Party to eliminate daylight saving time, saying it was “inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”
But he backed off that call last month, with another post on social media calling it a “50-50 issue.”
The president said some people would like more light later in the day but some want more light early so they don’t have to take their kids to school in the dark.
“When something’s a 50-50 issue, it’s hard to get excited about it,” he said.
The Senate in 2022 unanimously approved a measure that would make daylight saving time permanent across the United States, but it did not advance.