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. On Friday, Trump 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.What's going on at the state level, per the National Conference of State Legislatures: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.There's an argument for daylight-saving time.Still, there's also an argument against daylight-saving time.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."