Trump posts GOP lawmaker’s phone number amid spat over Daylight Saving Time

Trump Targets Cotton in Fight Over Permanent Daylight Saving Time

Sandego.net – President Donald Trump escalated his disagreement with Sen. Tom Cotton on Saturday by publicly sharing the Arkansas Republican’s cellphone number while pressing for legislation that would end the country’s twice-yearly clock changes.

Trump used Truth Social to accuse Cotton, whom he described as a friend, of blocking the Sunshine Protection Act. The proposal would establish Daylight Saving Time as the year-round national standard, eliminating the spring and autumn clock adjustments that affect most Americans.

“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 wrote.

In the same message, Trump urged Arkansas residents to contact their senator and included Cotton’s phone number. Calls to the number found the voicemail inbox full. Later, the line rang three times before an automated message said the wireless customer could not take the call. Cotton’s office was contacted for a response.

The dispute has placed a familiar policy issue at the center of a highly personal political clash. Trump has repeatedly criticized the semiannual clock change, arguing that it causes confusion for families, workplaces and travelers. Yet his preferred approach has not always been consistent: over time, he has expressed support for both permanent standard time and permanent Daylight Saving Time.

A Senate Standoff

The House showed broad support over the summer for keeping Daylight Saving Time throughout the year. Members approved the measure by a 308-117 vote. The Senate, however, has not advanced the proposal.

Cotton has been among the lawmakers resisting a change. In 2025, he objected when a bipartisan group of senators tried to pass a similar bill through unanimous consent, a procedure that requires no senator to object.

After Trump’s initial post Saturday, Cotton explained his position on X, saying that prior efforts to impose permanent Daylight Saving Time had been abandoned after Americans confronted very late winter sunrises.

“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changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” Cotton wrote.

“Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”

The exchange reflects the central divide in the long-running debate. Supporters of permanent Daylight Saving Time see the measure as a way to avoid disrupted routines and sleep schedules, particularly for children. They also contend that ending clock changes could ease the seasonal adjustment that many people find difficult.

Opponents do not necessarily favor changing clocks twice each year. Instead, they argue that adopting Daylight Saving Time permanently could produce undesirable winter mornings, including later sunrise times for schoolchildren, commuters and agricultural workers. In several major American cities, the sun could rise after 8 a.m. during winter if Daylight Saving Time remained in effect all year.

Trump Doubles Down

Trump answered Cotton’s criticism in another Truth Social post, insisting that an extra hour of evening light would benefit Arkansas residents. He also argued that avoiding clock changes would make daily life simpler for people at home, on farms and at work.

“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,” Trump wrote.

Trump attached a letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp that expressed the organization’s “strong support for the Sunshine Protection Act.” The letter had been sent to Trump earlier in the week.

Before leaving the White House for a Republican midterm election rally in Ohio, Trump declined to explain why he had posted Cotton’s number. He instead returned to his broader complaint about the clock-switching practice.

“(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,” Trump said.

“It makes people — it discombobulates everybody.”

Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said publishing Cotton’s number could expose the senator to potential harm. Castro raised concerns that foreign governments or non-state actors could attempt to compromise a phone once they have its number.

“Really, all they need is your number,” Castro said. “And then they’re sophisticated enough to be able to do it.”

A Familiar Trump Tactic

This was not the first instance in which Trump has made a sitting senator’s personal phone number public. During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he read Sen. Lindsey Graham’s cellphone number aloud before a large rally crowd.

Trump closed his latest series of messages by urging Cotton to support the bill and portraying it as a political opportunity for the Republican Party.

“TAKE THE WIN TOM, JUST TAKE THE WIN!” Trump wrote. “YOU NEED IT, AND SO DOES OUR BELOVED REPUBLICAN PARTY!”