Trump posts GOP lawmaker’s phone number amid spat over Daylight Saving Time
Trump Targets Tom Cotton in Dispute Over Permanent Daylight Saving Time
Qwenews.com – President Donald Trump escalated his push to end the twice-yearly clock change on Saturday, publicly criticizing Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and sharing the senator’s cellphone number in an effort to build pressure behind legislation for year-round Daylight Saving Time.
Trump used posts on Truth Social to argue that Cotton was blocking the Sunshine Protection Act, a proposal intended to keep the country on Daylight Saving Time throughout the year. The president framed the issue as a chance for a bipartisan victory and urged Arkansas residents to contact their senator.
“Everybody in Arkansas, Tom Cotton, a friend of mine, is holding up a very important Bill. It’s called, ‘The Sunshine Protection Act’ or, ‘We Don’t Want to Change Our Clocks Twice a Year Act,’”
Trump included Cotton’s phone number in the post. Calls to the number found the voicemail inbox full; later, the line rang three times before an automated message said the wireless customer was unavailable. Cotton’s office was asked for comment.
Senate Stalemate After House Vote
The dispute follows substantial House support for a national move to permanent Daylight Saving Time. Lawmakers approved such a measure during the summer by a 308-117 vote, but the Senate has not advanced the legislation.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the practice of moving clocks forward and backward each year. His broader preference has not always been consistent, however: at different points, he has expressed support for staying on standard time or keeping Daylight Saving Time in place permanently.
Cotton has taken the opposite view on changing the current system. In 2025, he objected when a bipartisan Senate group sought unanimous consent to pass a comparable measure. After Trump’s initial social-media post Saturday, Cotton argued that a permanent shift would create an unwelcome problem during winter mornings.
“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changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,”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.”
Trump answered with another post, contending that keeping clocks unchanged would give Arkansans more usable daylight and spare households, farms and workplaces from resetting timepieces twice annually. He attached a letter sent to him this week by PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, who voiced the tour’s support for the Sunshine Protection Act.
“If Tom Cotton were putting Arkansas first, he would give them an extra hour of daylight and, more importantly, they wouldn’t have to run all over their houses, farms, work places, and everywhere else, twice a year, having to change their Clocks, and often forgetting to do so,”
Debate Extends Beyond Convenience
Just before leaving the White House for a Republican midterm rally in Ohio, Trump declined to explain why he had posted Cotton’s number. Instead, he returned to his argument that the clock changes cause confusion in everyday life.
“(People) don’t want to have to go around changing clocks. I had the same thing last time, six months ago, we’re changing clocks, and nobody changed the clocks and everybody’s late,”
“It makes people — it discombobulates everybody.”
The argument over timekeeping is not merely about resetting clocks. Supporters of permanent Daylight Saving Time say it would remove disruptions linked to the seasonal switch, including impacts on children’s sleep routines. They also contend that a more stable schedule could help people who struggle with the seasonal effects of shorter days.
Opponents focus on winter daylight. Under permanent Daylight Saving Time, sunrise could occur after 8 a.m. in several large American cities during parts of the winter. That prospect has raised concerns for families getting children to school and for industries, including farming, that begin work early in the morning.
Congress has tried permanent Daylight Saving Time before, only to reverse course after public dissatisfaction over especially dark winter mornings. That history remains central to Cotton’s objections and illustrates why broad support for ending clock changes has not automatically produced agreement on which time standard should remain in force.
Security Concerns Over Published Number
Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas said Trump’s decision to publish the senator’s cellphone number could expose Cotton to security risks. Castro, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said public access to a number could make a device a more inviting target for foreign governments or non-state actors.
“Really, all they need is your number,”
Castro said, adding that sophisticated actors could attempt to compromise a phone once they had that information.
Trump continued pressing Cotton in a later message, casting the dispute as politically consequential for Republicans.
“TAKE THE WIN TOM, JUST TAKE THE WIN!”
“YOU NEED IT, AND SO DOES OUR BELOVED REPUBLICAN PARTY!”
The episode also revived a familiar feature of Trump’s political confrontations. During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he read Sen. Lindsey Graham’s personal cellphone number aloud at a rally. The current conflict, though centered on an issue that affects Americans nationwide twice each year, has now become a pointed disagreement between the president and one of his party’s senators.
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