Trump Renews Push to Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent

President Donald Trump renewed his push to make daylight saving time permanent on Wednesday evening, November 4, 2026, pressing the Senate to pass a bill that the House approved in July and that senators have not taken up since.

Trump made the case on Truth Social as darkness fell in Washington. Sunset came at 5:06 p.m. and it was dark by 5:31 p.m., he wrote, asking if that was not ridiculous. "It's so dark outside, so early," he said. "Just a few days ago it was so nice and sunny at this same time. In addition, everyone's been running around changing their clocks all over the place."

Clocks in most of the United States fell back one hour on November 1, when daylight saving time ended for the year. Trump said he had held the issue back before the election. "I didn't want to make a big deal out of this prior to the Election because I didn't want to have certain Senators lose their Race, in a landslide, but it is too bad they can't get it done," he wrote. "We have far bigger priorities, but I will keep fighting for this!"

A House bill waiting on the Senate

The bill is the Sunshine Protection Act, which Trump also called the "I Don't Want to Change My Clocks Anymore Act." The House passed it 308 to 117 in July and sent it to the Senate, where it has met resistance and has not advanced. The measure would make daylight saving time permanent across the country and end the twice yearly clock change, while letting states choose permanent standard time instead.

The current system rests on the Uniform Time Act of 1966, passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson. Only Congress has the authority to change the law, though the Secretary of Transportation oversees how it is administered. Public support for ending the clock change has grown, but the Senate was in an extended election recess and never took the bill up before the midterms.

One Republican senator in the way

The clearest roadblock in the Senate is Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who was reelected on Tuesday with 54.3 percent of the vote. Cotton opposes the bill and argues that permanent daylight saving time would push sunrises to an absurdly late hour, with effects on the safety and well being of Americans.

Trump has pressed Cotton before. Last month he went so far as to publish Cotton's phone number on social media and urge supporters to call him about the bill, and he has blamed Cotton for the measure stalling for reasons he called unknown.

A new Senate to persuade

The push lands one day after a midterm rout for Republicans. Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats and 32 House seats as of Wednesday evening, taking control of both chambers, according to counts reported in live election coverage. That means the bill Trump wants passed will now sit in a Senate run by the other party, and its fate there is unknown.

Trump spent part of Wednesday on non electoral matters, touring the White House ballroom construction site a day after the losses. The clock post showed the same pattern. The election is over, the lame duck weeks have started, and the president wants one domestic bill moved before the new Congress arrives: the one that stops Americans from changing their clocks.