Musk Asks X Users About Ending Daylight Saving Time

Most of Musk’s respondents say they‘d prefer ’an hour later.' Clocks will move forward Sunday.
Musk Asks X Users About Ending Daylight Saving Time
A clock behind a smartphone showing the time after daylight saving time was implemented in Los Angeles on March 15, 2022. Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images
Rachel Acenas
Updated:

Elon Musk has reignited the debate over Daylight Saving Time as most of the country is set to “spring forward” this weekend.

On Wednesday night, Musk conducted a poll on his social media platform X to get insight into how Americans feel about the time change.

“If daylight savings time change is canceled, do you prefer: an hour earlier [or] an hour later,” Musk asked his followers in the poll that closed Thursday afternoon.

More than 1.3 million X users participated in Musk’s survey. The poll, which closed Thursday afternoon, shows that 58.1 percent prefer “an hour later, while 41.9 percent voted “an hour earlier.”

Clocks are expected to move forward by an hour on Sunday, March 9, starting at 2 a.m. Americans will lose an hour of sleep, but will also get to enjoy the sun later in the evening, at least until November when the clocks “fall back” one hour.

President Donald Trump has long pledged to end the twice-a-year ritual.

“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” Trump wrote in a December 2024 Truth Social post.
In a March 2019 post, during his first term, Trump wrote: “Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is OK with me!”

Currently, only Hawaii and most of Arizona don’t participate in the practice.

Past efforts in Congress to end Daylight Saving have stalled. A bipartisan bill called the Sunshine Protection Act would have eliminated the time change twice a year.

The Senate passed the bill in 2022, but it failed in the House.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida earlier this year reintroduced it.

“I hear from Americans constantly that they are sick and tired of changing their clocks twice a year—it’s an unnecessary, decades-old practice that’s more of an annoyance to families than benefit to them,” Scott said in a Jan. 8 press release. “I’m excited to have President Trump back in the White House and fully on board to lock the clock so we can get this good bill passed and make this common-sense change that will simplify and benefit the lives of American families.”

Experts have said that the loss of one hour of sleep leads to more car accidents, heart attacks, and crankiness. On the other side of the argument, some studies suggest that using daylight saving time year-round could reduce crime and traffic accidents.
More than half of Americans surveyed in a Gallup poll would like to see an end to the twice-a-year change. The poll conducted in January 2025 shows that 54 percent of Americans are ready to do away with the practice. Meanwhile, 40 percent of Americans are in favor of daylight saving time, while 6 percent are uncertain.
Rachel Acenas
Rachel Acenas
Freelance Reporter
Rachel Acenas is an experienced journalist and TV news reporter and anchor covering breaking stories and contributing original news content for NTD's digital team.
twitter