GOP leader dumps cold water on another Trump obsession

Senate Majority Leader John Thune arrives at a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., February 24, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

President Donald Trump has renewed his push for a bill that would implement permanent Daylight Saving Time, but according to The Hill, a top Senate Republican has dumped cold water on the bill's chances, once again pulling the president back to reality.

As he struggles with widespread voter antipathy to most of his agenda, Trump is once again pushing for the Sunshine Protection Act as he looks for ideas that voters are generally supportive of. If the legislation passed and went into effect, the U.S. would operate under permanent Daylight Saving Time, ending the need to change the clocks twice a year. While many Americans can get behind the idea of ending that annoying practice, others, including numerous lawmakers in Congress, have warned of the drawbacks, including pitch-dark winter mornings and disrupted sleep patterns.

That pushback from lawmakers seems to have doomed the bill's prospects for the time being, as Senate Majority Leader John Thune said this week that it has "no clear path forward," despite Trump's pressure.

“The president feels strongly on it like he does a lot of issues,” Thune said in an interview. “It’s something we’re having conversations about but there’s no clear path forward or consensus on it yet.”

As The Hill noted, Thune also expressed opposition to the bill earlier this year, citing the detrimental impact it would have on his home state of South Dakota.

"I’m from a northern clime,” he told reporters. “I voted against it in committee."

Thune has frequently stood his ground against Trump's pressure campaigns over the course of his second term, notably putting his foot down to insist that the SAVE America Act lacked the support to pass in the Senate without nuking filibuster rules. That bill would have implemented sweeping changes to voter registration requirements, as part of Trump's long-term crusade against voter fraud that he falsely insists is widespread.

The Sunshine Protection Act previously passed in the House with bipartisan support, 308 to 117, in July, before running into the current roadblock in the Senate.

As Trump pushed for the bill to pass prior to Election Day, he took to Truth Social in a series of posts deriding the practice of changing the clocks, and seeming to imply that a large part of his passion for the change was because the change to permanent DST would benefit golfers.

"A ridiculous Clock changing process that takes place twice a year, costs our Country a fortune, is bad for Crime, stress on people, Sports, and just about everything else you can imagine,” Trump posted on Truth Social Friday. “People don’t want to go around changing their Clocks anymore and, besides, far and away, most people like having an hour of extra sunlight in the evening, rather than in the morning."

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