Trump backs permanent daylight saving as House clears “Sunshine Protection Act”

Trump the president shared a report tying permanent summer time to better sleep and fewer accidents, days after the House passed the bill 308-117 and sent it to a wary Senate.

First Published: July 21, 2026, 7:25 AM ET

WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald Trump threw his weight behind permanent daylight saving time, pointing to health gains.

Here is the full post on truthsocial: “Why permanent daylight saving time may be better for your health: https://nypost.com/health/health-benefits-of-daylight-savings-time/”

The president shared a New York Post health report arguing that ending the twice-a-year clock change would reduce sleep disruption tied to heart attacks, strokes and traffic crashes. The post carried no added commentary and appeared on Truth Social on July 21, 2026 at 11:02 AM ET.

The timing matters. The House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act on July 14, 2026, by a vote of 308-117 and sent the measure to the Senate according to wikipedia.org. The bill would keep the country on summer time year-round and repeal the section of law that lets states self-exempt into permanent standard time.

Supporters and skeptics split over the same daylight. Backers, including Trump, say later evening light would cut crime, boost productivity and prevent accidents. Critics point to darker winter mornings and the risk to schoolchildren who would travel before sunrise.

Research cited in the shared report tied the fall-back hour to a 6% rise in car wrecks overall, a 15% jump in freeway crashes and a 28% increase in nighttime crashes. “The scientific evidence points to acute increases in adverse health consequences from changing the clocks, including in heart attack and stroke,” said Adam Spira, a Johns Hopkins sleep expert.

For the average reader, the change would reset daily rhythms. Sunrise would arrive an hour later in winter, pushing some morning commutes and school runs into darkness, while evenings would hold extra light for months. Hawaii, most of Arizona and several U.S. territories already skip the switch and would keep their exemptions from permanent summer time according to wikipedia.org.

Seasonal patterns compound the stakes. Seasonal affective disorder affects up to 5% of adults, and another 10% to 20% report milder winter blues, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Some sleep experts counter that morning light best regulates circadian rhythms, arguing permanent standard time, not summer time, would be the healthier choice.

Has this happened before? It has. Congress enacted year-round daylight saving time from January 6, 1974, and ended the experiment early on October 27, 1974, after public backlash over children walking to school in the dark according to wikipedia.org. The Senate also passed a version of the bill by unanimous consent on March 15, 2022, though the House never took it up and the effort expired.

The next move belongs to the Senate, which has not scheduled a floor vote. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a leading opponent, has invoked the failed 1974 test to argue against the measure, and no date for a decision has been announced.

The clock fight is older than the lawmakers waging it. Railroad companies imposed standard time zones across the United States in 1883, and the Standard Time Act codified them in 1918 with a wartime daylight saving provision modeled on European energy laws according to wikipedia.org. Farmers protested, and Congress repealed that seasonal component a year later. More than a century on, the same argument over morning darkness that undid the 1918 and 1974 experiments now waits in the Senate, where past champions of the change watched their bills stall short of the president’s desk.