Gadol: I suspect Trump’s position is still in favor of year round DST; I don’t think he made a full 180. Far more likely he just foolishly said the wrong thing.
The way the law is set up right now–from my limited understanding–is that if the federal government allowed for year round DST, it would effectively leave the decision up to the states. If they adopted year-round standard time, it would effectively ban states from doing DST because states cannot do more DST than what is federally sanctioned, but they can do less. A lot of states already adopted legislation saying that if the federal government expands DST or makes it year round they will automatically adopt it as well.
Year round DST would be the pro “states’ rights” approach that one should expect from Republicans. That being said, I have absolutely no idea what to expect from them now that their platform is completely left up to the fleeting whims of one person.