Trump daylight saving time push after Republican midterm losses, Digi Mart USA News: Donald Trump woke to a Republican Party reeling from one of the largest midterm losses in US history. Republicans lost majorities in both chambers of Congress, and Democrats flipped Senate seats in deep-red states including Texas, Kansas and South Carolina.
The President will spend his final two years in office as a lame duck. In his first speech after the losses, he spoke about his controversial White House ballroom before turning to social media to raise daylight saving time, a long-standing grievance.
Trump has spent months pushing Congress to make daylight saving time permanent, even publicly posting the phone number of Republican Senator Tom Cotton online in an effort to secure support. He has argued that changing clocks twice a year is dangerous for workers and that afternoon and evening sunshine is more valuable than morning light.
He has also claimed that year-round daylight saving time would reduce crime, writing in an October social media post, “CRIMINALS DON’T LIKE WORKING IN THE LIGHT.” He added that the change would allow more time for golf. Research cited in the report found that robbery incidents fall as much as 40 per cent during daylight saving time.
Supporters of the plan also argue that clock changes disrupt sleep and increase the risk of traffic accidents and workplace injuries. Critics note that permanent daylight saving time would mean children and workers commuting in the dark through much of winter, which could put some at risk of harm.
The outlook for the measure appears poor. A July House vote on the Sunshine Protection Act, which would have implemented Trump’s change, passed 308-117, but the Senate repeatedly refused to take up the bill.
In October, Trump complained that the Senate was “letting the Daylight Saving Time bill die.”
With Democrats now in control of both chambers, the bill’s prospects appear to be all but gone, even though it has modest bipartisan support. Democratic leaders have indicated their focus will be on other issues, including ending the Iran war and lowering healthcare costs.
Trump’s focus on daylight saving time reflects a recent pattern, the report notes, in which the President appears more focused on personal, non-political projects than governance. Rather than use his closing message to voters to promise action on the cost of living, a key midterm concern, he spent around 20 minutes discussing his renovation of Washington’s Reflecting Pool, including a joke about renaming it after himself.
The morning after the Republican defeat, he also summoned reporters to the White House to tout progress on his ballroom, saying, “This has been a structure the likes of which has never been seen anywhere.”
