Donald Trump Attacks GOP Senator As Fight To End Daylight Saving Time Stalls - Newsweek

President Donald Trump has attacked Republican Senator Tom Cotton, accusing him of blocking a bipartisan bill to end the twice-yearly daylight saving time clock changes.

Trump is publicly pressuring the Senate to pass the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill that would effectively end twice-yearly clock changes by introducing permanent daylight saving time.

The House passed the measure to introduce permanent daylight saving time in July, with a bipartisan 308-117 vote, but it still needs Senate approval before it can become law.

On Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said that Republicans in the Senate "have to get moving," on what he dubbed the "No More Changing of Clocks Act."

"A ridiculous clock changing process that takes place twice a year, costs our country a fortune, is bad for crime, stress on people, sports, and just about everything else you can imagine," Trump wrote, adding that "people don't want to go around changing their clocks anymore."

In the post, Trump called out Cotton, claiming that he was the reason the bill has not yet been passed.

The president said that an extra hour of natural sunlight in the evenings would help to: "decrease robbery and murder rates, reduce car accidents (especially those involving pedestrians!), lower risk for cardiac issues, stroke, and seasonal depression, make it safer for children to walk home from school, increase time with your family, strongly support extracurricular activities, boost the sports, fitness, tourism, retail, and restaurant industries (and more!), and save money on energy bills, because everyone will be enjoying an extra hour of daylight."

But Cotton has raised concerns shared by some of the public that permanent daylight saving time would push winter sunrises too late in many parts of the country, risking children walking to school in darkness.

Newsweek has reached out to Senator Tom Cotton for comment.

Public opinion is also favorable toward permanent DST. According to a YouGov survey conducted in February, 64 percent of Americans said they would like to eliminate changing clocks twice a year, while just 16 percent opposed ending the practice.

Support for ending clock changes also crosses party lines, with majorities of Democrats, independents and Republicans backing the bill.

Currently Americans are due to set their clocks back one hour on November 1 as the country returns to Standard Time.

But the Sunshine Protection Act would change that, leaving the entire country permanently on daylight saving time.

Nineteen states have already approved permanent daylight saving time, but those laws cannot take effect unless Congress changes federal law first.

The Senate unanimously approved a similar measure in 2022 but it later stalled in the House. This time, the bill could face some opposition in the upper chamber.

In the Senate, Cotton has blocked the efforts to pass the Sunshine Protection Act. Cotton has argued that permanent DST would spell disaster for Americans. In October 2025, he said: “If permanent daylight savings time becomes the law of the land, it will again make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans.”

In Arkansas, under permanent daylight saving time the sun would not rise until almost 8 a.m. on December 1. Cotton argued that it would be harmful for schoolchildren and working adults who “might go three, four, even five hours in the morning without seeing the sun.”

Despite bipartisan support, permanent daylight saving time faces opposition from several influential groups. Sleep medicine experts argue it would leave clocks "out of sync with our biology year-round," according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine spokesperson Karin Johnson.

Orthodox Jewish organizations have also raised concerns. Rabbi A.D. Motzen of Agudath Israel of America previously told Newsweek that permanent daylight saving time could make it "extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible" for some observant Jews to reach work by 9 a.m. in winter.

The ski industry has warned that later winter sunrises could create safety challenges in mountain areas, while some lawmakers, including Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, have cited health and child safety concerns linked to darker mornings.

“In January of 1974, millions of Americans traveled to work and school in darkness. Commuter trains were delayed. Schoolchildren carried flashlights. Tragically, some of these kids were struck by cars and killed while walking to school in the dark,” Cotton said in 2025, describing the last time the U.S. attempted year-round daylight saving.

In response to the 1973 oil crisis, Congress passed the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act which placed most of the country on year-round daylight saving time beginning January 6, 1974.

While it worked well at first, when winter arrived the policy quickly became unpopular.

In Washington, D.C. the sun did not rise until after 8 a.m. on some winter mornings. While across the country, children waited at bus stops before dawn and commuters traveled to work in the dark. Public concern grew after several traffic accidents involving children making their way to school were reported.

While first popular with the public who enjoyed brighter evenings, as the realities of darker winter mornings set in, the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago reported that support dropped to 42 percent by February 1974.

Lawmakers ultimately reversed the policy after less than a year.