Trump appears to post Tom Cotton’s phone number over daylight saving bill
Trump urged Arkansans to press Sen. Tom Cotton on permanent daylight saving time, posting a number reported as appearing to be his cellphone.
By Deshawn Carter · Sports Writer
2 min read
President Donald Trump appeared to post Sen. Tom Cotton’s phone number while demanding that the Arkansas Republican stop blocking a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent. In a Saturday Truth Social post, Trump told Arkansans to contact Cotton and back the Sunshine Protection Act, according to NBC News and Politico.
The number was not reproduced here. Multiple outlets described it as appearing to be Cotton’s personal cellphone number, but the reporting did not independently establish ownership. The Associated Press, in a report published by PBS NewsHour, said calls to the number were unanswered and its voicemail box was full. Politico said its call reached voicemail.
Trump called Cotton a friend but said the senator was holding up what he portrayed as a broadly supported bipartisan measure. He also criticized the twice-yearly clock changes and later argued that permanent daylight saving time would give Arkansans more daylight.
Why does Tom Cotton oppose permanent daylight saving time?
Cotton said Saturday that he also dislikes changing clocks, but warned that keeping daylight saving time year-round would create very late winter sunrises. He said Arkansas children could be travelling to school in the dark, and said he would continue to put the state first.
That is the core split in the fight. Supporters, including the White House, say permanent daylight saving time would keep more daylight in the evening, when many people are active. Opponents say the change would mean darker, potentially hazardous winter mornings for commuters and children waiting for school buses, the AP reported.
Daylight saving time is the period from spring through fall when most of the country sets clocks one hour ahead of standard time. The Sunshine Protection Act would make that schedule permanent across most of the United States, ending the clock changes. States could opt out if their legislatures act before the measure takes effect, according to the AP report.
The proposal passed the House in July but has been stalled in the Senate since then, Politico reported. Cotton is not the only Senate Republican with reservations: Politico reported that Senate Majority Leader John Thune opposed an earlier version in committee, and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito has said Cotton is not alone in opposing it.
Trump’s claims that Cotton alone is stopping the measure, or that ending clock changes would produce particular benefits, remain his assertions. The legislative impasse has a longer history: the Senate passed a separate permanent-daylight-saving-time bill in 2022, but it did not advance in the House, according to the AP report.
This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.