Donald Trump has said he wants to scrap Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the United States, calling the practice “inconvenient” and “very costly” to Americans.
Touching on the topic on Monday’s (December 16) edition of The Tonight Show, host Jimmy Fallon took aim at the Dems and quipped, “People are divided. Republicans don’t want to go back an hour, and Democrats want to go back four years.”
“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” Trump wrote on Truth Social over the weekend.
The practice of DST, which sees clocks move forward or backward an hour twice a year, is adopted in around 70 countries worldwide. Some complain the practice upsets sleep patterns, leading to health issues.
However, others argue that without DST, it would mean darker mornings in the winter, making roads more dangerous to travel. It could also have a negative impact on agriculture, an industry that relies on lots of sunlight to work in.
While most U.S. states have practiced DST since the 1960s, some states, such as Arizona and Hawaii, don’t change their clocks. Neighboring Mexico also ended DST in 2022, though it’s still continued in regions near the U.S. border.
In 2022, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla) argued, “It’s time to lock the clock and stop enduring the ridiculous and antiquated practice of switching our clocks back and forth. Let’s finally pass my Sunshine Protection Act and end the need to ‘fall back’ and ‘spring forward’ for good.”
The U.S. tried permanent DST in 1974, which was enacted by President Richard Nixon in response to the 1973 oil crisis. However, the decision was reversed less than a year later following complaints about no sunlight in some parts of the country until 9 a.m.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Weeknights, 11:35/10:35c, NBC