President Trump posted what appeared to be Sen. Tom Cotton’s cell number and told Arkansans to call him after the Republican held up a bipartisan permanent daylight saving time bill.
President Donald Trump went straight at a fellow Republican on Truth Social, appearing to share Sen. Tom Cotton’s personal cell phone number and urging Arkansas voters to dial it until the stalled Sunshine Protection Act moves. Trump cast Cotton as the single senator blocking a measure that already cleared the House with broad support and that he says should pass easily.
Fox News Digital reported that Trump described Cotton as “a friend” while blaming him for stopping the bill from reaching a Senate vote last October, then put a number tied to a Dardanelle, Arkansas, area code in the post and told constituents to lean on him.
In the post, Trump wrote that one senator can kill a measure in the upper chamber and that this one should not die that way.
"For some reason, Tom is stopping the Bill and, in the Senate, it’s very easy to do, it only takes one! It should pass overwhelmingly, in a Bipartisan fashion,"
He followed with a direct pitch to the state he says he has carried three times:
"So, everyone in Arkansas, a State I love, and won 3 times, the last by by 34 points, tell Tom to, GET IT DONE!"
The House approved its version of the permanent daylight saving time bill in July by a 308, 117 vote with bipartisan backing. That measure went to a Senate committee and, per reporting on the fight, has not been touched since.
The New York Post reported the House vote landed on July 14, 2026, and that the Senate’s adjournment leaves the chamber out until after the Nov. 3 midterms, locking in another clock change on Nov. 1 before lawmakers return.
Trump has argued that ending the twice-a-year switch would cut robbery and murder rates, reduce car accidents, especially those involving pedestrians, and lower risks tied to cardiac problems, stroke, and seasonal depression. He has made ending the clock ritual a visible priority even as other agenda items, including the SAVE America Act, have also waited on Congress.
Last fall, Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., tried to move a Senate version by unanimous consent. Cotton rejected that effort, according to the same reporting that tracked Trump’s latest post.
Hours after Trump called him out, Cotton doubled down on X. He did not embrace permanent daylight saving time and framed his stand as putting 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,"
He added:
"Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first."
Cotton has also warned that permanent daylight saving time would push winter sunrises in Arkansas past 8 a.m. or even 8:30 a.m., hitting schoolchildren, farmers, and construction workers who start early. Trump, for his part, has said people are “sick and tired” of changing clocks twice a year and that Cotton is holding the bill up “for reasons unknown.”
Fox News Digital dialed the Arkansas number tied to the post and did not reach Cotton. The outlet also sought White House comment.
The tactic is familiar. In 2015, while campaigning, Trump shared then-Sen. Lindsey Graham’s number at a South Carolina rally after Graham called him a “jacka**” on CBS that morning. Public pressure through a posted number is a tool he has used before when a Republican got in the way of a fight he wanted finished.
Congress remains split along more than party lines. Northern and southern states have long argued over who benefits from permanent daylight saving time and who absorbs darker winter mornings. The House vote showed bipartisan appetite for locking in the extra evening light. The Senate’s rules still let a single member stop unanimous consent, and the calendar now pushes any floor action past the next clock change and past the midterms.
Trump’s post leaves little ambiguity about his demand: pass the Sunshine Protection Act, stop the ritual of springing forward and falling back, and stop letting one senator bottle up a bill the House already passed by a wide margin. Cotton’s reply leaves little ambiguity either, he will not trade dark winter school runs for permanent evening daylight, and he says history shows Congress has reversed course when late sunrises arrived.
Voters who hate the twice-yearly switch now know exactly whom Trump wants them to call. Whether the Senate ever schedules a real vote is another question, one the clock will answer before the chamber does.
