President Trump shared Sen. Tom Cotton’s phone number on Truth Social and told Arkansas voters to lean on him after the senator blocked a bipartisan bill to end twice-yearly clock changes.
Speaking with reporters at the White House on Saturday before boarding Marine One for Ohio, President Donald Trump again pressed Congress to scrap the twice-a-year clock switch and lock in permanent daylight saving time. He said Americans are tired of the ritual and want evening light without the hassle.
The push came with a sharper move online. On Truth Social, Trump called out Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., for stopping the Sunshine Protection Act and posted a phone number tied to Cotton, telling Arkansans to contact him and “GET IT DONE.”
Fox News Digital reported that the number was associated with a Dardanelle, Arkansas area code. The outlet called it and did not reach Cotton. The White House was also contacted for comment.
The House approved its version of the measure in July by a 308, 117 vote, with bipartisan backing. The bill then went to a Senate committee and has not moved.
Breitbart reported that Trump had said in May he would work hard to see the Sunshine Protection Act signed into law, and that he framed Cotton as the holdup on a bill with broad appeal. In the Truth Social post, Trump wrote that Cotton was “holding up a very important Bill” and told people in Arkansas to “call Tom on his cellphone.”
Last fall, Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., tried to advance the measure by unanimous consent. Trump says Cotton blocked it. In the Senate, one objection is enough to stop that path.
The Senate is out of session until Nov. 3 and cannot vote until after the midterm elections, leaving the bill in limbo while the twice-yearly switch continues.
At the White House, Trump did not soften the case. He told reporters the country should get away from what he called a “ridiculous way and custom” of turning clocks back and forward twice a year, leaving people late for dinner and important meetings.
"We want to get away from this ridiculous way and custom of, every twice a year, turning your clocks back, turning your clocks forward, being late for dinner, being late for very important meetings. It's ridiculous."
He said people want light in the evening, but want even more to stop changing clocks at all. He has also argued permanent daylight saving would help cut robbery and murder rates, reduce car accidents, especially those involving pedestrians, and lower risks tied to cardiac issues, stroke, and seasonal depression.
In the Truth Social post, Trump wrote that Cotton was stopping the bill and that in the Senate “it only takes one.” He said it should pass “overwhelmingly, in a Bipartisan fashion,” and told “everyone in Arkansas, a State I love, and won 3 times, the last by 34 points,” to tell Tom to get it done.
Cotton did not fold. On X, he said he dislikes changing the clock too, but pointed to history. Congress has enacted permanent daylight saving time more than once and repealed it after Americans faced very late winter sunrises.
Just the News reported his full reply, including his refusal to back making daylight saving permanent. Cotton wrote that Arkansans do not want children going to school in the dark and that he will put Arkansas first.
"No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter. Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first."
That is the core split. Trump is treating the twice-yearly switch as a tired custom the public wants ended. Cotton is treating permanent daylight saving as a policy that already failed when dark winter mornings hit families and school schedules.
Posting a senator’s number is not new territory for Trump. In 2015, while campaigning, he shared then-Sen. Lindsey Graham’s number at a South Carolina rally after Graham called him a “jackass” on CBS that morning. The Cotton post follows the same public-pressure model: name the holdout, give voters a direct line, and force the issue into the open.
The Sunshine Protection Act still sits where the House left it, passed with a big bipartisan margin, then parked in the Senate. One Republican senator from a state Trump carried by a wide margin is standing in the way. Voters who are sick of resetting clocks now know exactly whom Trump wants them to call.
When a bill clears the House 308, 117 and still cannot get a clean Senate vote, the bottleneck is not mystery. It is one office, one objection, and a public that has to keep changing the clocks while Washington stalls.
