Trump is extricating himself from the daylight-savings drama

• Daylight-saving time (DST) begins this Sunday, March 9, when clocks spring from 1:59 a.m. to 3 a.m.
• In December, Donald Trump said he planned to end DST because it is inconvenient and costly.
• His Republican colleagues and golf lobbyists want the opposite.

President Donald Trump is delicately extricating himself from the fierce and contradictory political drama over daylight-saving time.

In December 2024, Trump said on Truth Social that he would end daylight-saving time and make standard time permanent because DST is "inconvenient and very costly for our Nation."

In other words, the US would stop winding the clocks forward in March, which gives us more sunlight in the summer nights. (This year, clocks spring forward on March 9.)

The president would have had the backing of health experts and economists. Research shows that daylight-saving time is linked to myriad health problems, including premature and accidental death, and has increased energy bills in some states. Hawaii and Arizona ditched DST years ago, and many states are considering the same.

And yet many of Trump's Republican colleagues want the exact opposite. In January, Florida Sen. Rick Scott reignited the Sunshine Protection Act to make DST permanent. The bipartisan bill, first introduced by fellow Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, was passed unanimously by the Senate in 2022 but faltered in the House.

Rubio and Scott have the backing of golf industry lobbyists who say afternoon golf leagues rely on evening sun and generate eye-watering sums of money for their sport.

Reader, the more we learn about DST, the more convoluted it seems to become. Trump has signaled that he's leaving this squabble, at least for now.

"It's a 50/50 issue, and if something is a 50/50 issue, it's hard to get excited about it. I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people would like to have more light earlier because they don't want to take their kids to school in the dark," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday. "It's something I can do, but a lot of people like it one way. A lot of people like it the other way."

Here's a cheat sheet on why the DST drama is not so straightforward.

Many states have an opinion on daylight-savings

What's going on at the state level, per the National Conference of State Legislatures:

• Hawaii and Arizona have permanent standard time. That means their clocks do not spring forward to create more evening sunlight.
• At least 19 states have introduced bills to keep daylight-saving time year-round (to have more light in the evenings).
• At least 30 states have bills proposing permanent standard time (meaning more light in the mornings).
• Many states have bills for both. Many states have legislation that says they will follow their neighboring states' lead; if they switch to permanent DST or permanent standard time, they will follow suit.
• In the 2018 midterms, California voters voted to make daylight savings time permanent. That measure got stuck in committee meetings. In 2024, CA lawmakers introduced legislation proposing an end to DST and switching to permanent standard time. Now, they're in a stalemate.

Here's what's happening at the national level

• Congress must approve the switch to permanent DST, but states do not need federal approval to switch to permanent standard time.

• In January, Rick Scott revived the bipartisan push to "stop the clock" and make DST permanent through the Sunshine Protection Act.

  Though Trump was suggesting the opposite, Scott issued a statement saying he expected the president's support. "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," Scott said.

Is DST good or bad?

There's an argument for daylight-saving time.

• Golfing hours: The golf industry is lobbying hard for DST. The Associated Press reports golf executives played a role in inventing DST, and are behind many of the pro-DST bills peppered across US legislatures. One Nebraska golf course manager told the AP that ending daylight savings would cost him $500,000 by curtailing evening golf clubs.
• Reduce crime: A 2015 study found crime rates may dip with more evening sunlight. Further research is needed to show a strong connection between crime rates and DST.

Still, there's also an argument against daylight-saving time.

• It's costly: Daylight-saving time was devised in Germany as a measure to conserve energy during World War 1. Now we know it doesn't really work that way — a study found that people in Indiana, for example, spent $7 million more annually on energy bills after the state switched to DST in 2006. Employees were also less productive in DST hours, one study suggested.

• It's bad for our health: Overwhelmingly, research shows DST to be linked to poor health outcomes.

  The switch itself is particularly harmful — throwing off our sleep cycle and affecting our metabolism, hormones, and inflammation control. The Monday after DST kicks in is associated with more heart attacks and strokes, while those rates drop the Monday after DST ends.

  During DST, fatal car accidents are more common in the dark early mornings and injuries at work increase.

  That's why health professionals wondered if Sen. Rubio was confused when introducing the Sunshine Protect Act because evidence overwhemlingly shows DST to be damaging.

  "When we saw that, it was kind of an 'oopsie-daisies,'" Dr. Akinbolaji Akingbola, a sleep expert at the University of Minnesota Medical School, previously told Business Insider. "We've all been pretty clear that standard time would be the better choice."