Fact Check: Is Trump's claim permanent DST would save hundreds of millions of dollars true?
WASHINGTON, DC: Lawmakers continue to push efforts to make daylight saving time permanent year-round, and President Donald Trump has recently added momentum to the debate by criticizing the twice-yearly clock changes as costly and wasteful. Trump argues that ending the seasonal time shifts would reduce expenses and deliver meaningful economic benefits. Let's fact check the claim.
Claim: Trump’s push to make daylight saving time permanent
The Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent year-round unless states choose to opt out, was incorporated into a motor vehicle safety bill that advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 21 with a 48–1 vote. Shortly after the committee approval, President Donald Trump expressed his support for the proposal on Truth Social.
Trump wrote, "This is so important in that Hundreds of Millions of Dollars are spent every year by people, Cities, and States, being forced to change their Clocks. Many of these Clocks are located in Towers, and the cost of renting, or using, Heavy Equipment to do this twice a year is prohibitive!”
He described, "I am going to work very hard to see The Sunshine Protection Act signed into Law."
He also argued, "It’s time that people can stop worrying about the ‘Clock,’ not to mention all of the work and money that is spent on this ridiculous, twice yearly production. It will also be a very nice WIN for the Republican Party."
Trump further framed the proposal as politically beneficial, "Take it! We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day — And who can be against that — This is an easy one!”
Fact Check: Trump's suggestion to make DST permanent would not deliver economic benefits
President Donald Trump delivers remarks to graduating students at the Coleman Coliseum at the University of Alabama on May 01, 2025 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)There is no strong evidence that switching permanently to daylight saving time would deliver the economic benefits that Trump suggests.
Researchers have also found no credible analysis supporting the claim that changing municipal clocks in towers with heavy equipment costs hundreds of millions of dollars, as the president has stated.
David Prerau, author of the 2005 book 'Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time,' said that in decades of studying and speaking about the topic, he has never encountered concerns about the cost of physically adjusting tower clocks on a large scale.
He added that while some municipalities may incur minor expenses, such costs are rare and generally negligible in the broader economic context.
Some economic estimates do exist, however. A “back-of-the-envelope” calculation by an economist with the Independent Institute, later updated in 2013 by the American Enterprise Institute, placed the “opportunity cost” of daylight saving time at about $2 billion per year.
This estimate assumes that people spend about 10 minutes twice a year adjusting clocks and assigns a lost wage value to that time.
