With the spring season around, Daylight Saving Time (DST) will officially start in countries around the world including the US. The biannual changing of the clocks has long been a controversial topic with US President Donald Trump previously hinting at doing away with the custom. The president’s unelected sidekick, Elon Musk, recently put out a poll to see how the public feels about DST.
In an X (formerly Twitter) poll on Wednesday (5 March), Musk asked: “If daylight savings time change is canceled, do you prefer an hour earlier [or] an hour later.”
Over 1.3 million people voted, with 58.1 per cent of them calling for the clock to be pushed forward an hour while 41.9 per cent of voters wanted the clocks to be pushed back by an hour.
If daylight savings time change is canceled, do you prefer
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2025
Mr Musk is known for conducting such polls on his social media handle to make major decisions. He previously stepped down as the X CEO after holding a poll where the majority told him to do so. The billionaire is fond of quoting the phrase “vox populi, vox dei”, a Latin phrase which roughly means “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Regardless of Mr Musk’s poll results this time, the question of DST being abolished remains up in the air with the Trump administration yet to take a concrete call.
In a Truth Social post last year, President Trump said DST was imposing an unnecessary financial burden on Americans as he talked about eliminating the system.
“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 (DST) is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social last year.
DST’s criticism
DST will take effect in North America on Sunday (March 9) when clocks will be moved forward an hour at 2 AM local standard time — meaning at 2 AM that night, the clocks will read 3 AM local daylight time. Meanwhile, in most of Europe, DST will kick into effect on March 30.
One of the major criticisms of DST is that it can be costly due to its impact on energy consumption, health, and productivity. though initially intended to save energy, the longer daylight hours often lead to increased cooling costs. The time change also disrupts sleep, contributing to health problems, productivity losses, and operational inefficiencies in sectors like transportation and technology.