TV talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has publicly challenged President Donald Trump to fulfill his earlier pledge to eliminate daylight saving time, describing it as a rare chance for the president to do something both “dumb” and popular with the American public.
On the March 10, 2025 episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the host pointed out that President Trump seems to be reconsidering his former promise to abolish the biannual clock changes that many Americans find disruptive.
“Trump is ‘firing air traffic controllers, screwing up our national parks, threatening to annex Canada, focusing on all these dumb things, and not just dumb things, unpopular things,'” Kimmel said on his show. “Why not focus on a dumb popular thing and do away with this ridiculous clock change twice a year? Set the clock and leave it be. Give the people what we want!”
Kimmel’s remarks follow the recent shift in clocks forward, which resulted in Americans losing an hour of sleep. The practice has faced growing criticism, with many experts questioning its benefits.
President Trump had previously criticized daylight saving time as “inconvenient and very costly for our Nation” in a December 2024 post on Truth Social. However, since resuming office for a second term in January 2025, he has not taken any definitive actions on the matter.
In recent statements, Trump has shown a more ambivalent view, acknowledging that opinions on daylight saving time are divided. “It’s a 50-50 issue,” Trump noted, indicating the challenge in generating enthusiasm for changing the current system.
The debate over daylight saving time reveals both regional and political differences. Some of Trump’s Republican colleagues, such as Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio of Florida, support making daylight saving time permanent through the bipartisan Sunshine Protection Act. The golf industry has also lobbied for maintaining daylight saving time due to the benefit of longer evening daylight hours for their leagues.
Health experts tend to support either ending the practice entirely or switching to permanent standard time, citing evidence that clock changes and misalignment with natural light cycles can disrupt sleep patterns and potentially lead to various health issues.
Polls indicate that approximately 62% of Americans favor eliminating the practice of changing clocks twice a year. However, there is less agreement on whether to adopt permanent daylight saving time or permanent standard time.
In 2022, the Senate unanimously passed legislation to make daylight saving time permanent, but the measure stalled in the House of Representatives due to opposition from groups like the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which warned about the potential negative health impacts of permanent daylight saving time.
In his monologue, Kimmel highlighted that a majority of California voters had already voted to abolish daylight saving time, yet it remains in effect. He called it a unique opportunity for President Trump to take action on a widely popular issue across partisan lines.
“You wanna make America great again? End this daylight saving madness forever, Mr. President,” Kimmel said. “I dare you!”
The audience responded with applause, but Kimmel expressed doubt that any change would occur. “We’ll do this all over again next year,” he predicted.
The Department of Transportation, responsible for overseeing daylight saving time in the United States, cites energy reduction and reduced crime as reasons for maintaining both standard and daylight saving time. However, research on these benefits has been mixed, with some studies suggesting that daylight saving time may actually increase energy consumption and have limited effect on crime rates.
Currently, Arizona (excluding the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii are the only states that do not observe daylight saving time. Other states have passed legislation expressing a preference for either permanent daylight saving time or permanent standard time, but transitioning to permanent daylight saving time requires congressional approval. States can independently switch to permanent standard time without federal authorization.
Elon Musk, a key adviser to President Trump, has also commented on the issue, asking users on his social media platform X for their opinions on daylight saving time. This indicates that the administration may be assessing public sentiment before making any policy decisions.
While the political debate continues, sleep experts and health officials generally support making standard time permanent, as it aligns better with the body’s natural circadian rhythms. Conversely, making daylight saving time permanent could result in darker mornings during winter months, potentially affecting morning commutes and school start times.
President Trump cannot unilaterally end daylight saving time, as changes to the current system require an act of Congress. With a narrow Republican majority in Congress and no clear consensus on a path forward, significant changes to daylight saving time appear unlikely in the immediate future, despite Kimmel’s appeal.