Trump signals he won’t seek to change daylight saving time: ‘It’s a 50/50 issue’

President Trump on Thursday indicated he would not push for an end to daylight saving time, or to make daylight saving time permanent, suggesting the public was too evenly split on the issue.

“It’s a 50/50 issue, and if something is a 50/50 issue, it’s hard to get excited about it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don’t want to take their kids to school in the dark.”

“It’s something I can do, but a lot of people like it one way. A lot of people like it the other way,” Trump continued. “It’s very even. And usually I find when that’s the case, what else do we have to do?”

Most Americans will turn their clocks forward one hour on Sunday for the start of daylight saving time.

Trump in December advocated for eliminating daylight saving time. Meanwhile, lawmakers have for years introduced bills to make daylight saving time permanent, but the legislation has struggled to make it through both chambers of Congress.

Supporters of making daylight saving permanent, which would end the need for most Americans to turn the clocks back an hour in the fall, have argued it would allow for more sunlight later into the day, allowing people to enjoy the outdoors for longer.

But critics of the shift have argued it would mean it would remain dark out later into the morning, forcing children to go to school, and in some case wait for buses, in the dark.

Most of the United States has observed daylight saving time since the 1960s, though it was first introduced by then-President Wilson in 1918.