President Donald Trump published Sen. Tom Cotton’s personal cellphone number on Truth Social, urging Arkansas residents to press the Republican senator to support the Sunshine Protection Act, the Washington Examiner reported. The move escalated a dispute over seasonal clock changes, with Trump demanding Senate action and Cotton warning about children traveling to school in winter darkness.
The legislation passed the House 308-117 on July 14 with bipartisan support, according to the Examiner. But the report said there is no scheduled Senate debate or vote, and the chamber is not set to return until Nov. 9, after the midterm election and the Nov. 1 clock change Trump wants lawmakers to avert.
Trump’s appeal put a senator from his own party at the center of the fight. Rather than simply asking the Senate to move the bill, the president directed constituents to Cotton’s personal phone and framed passage as an opportunity for a bipartisan victory.
Trump takes the pressure campaign public
In the Truth Social message quoted by the Examiner, Trump addressed the “Great People of Arkansas” and asked them to tell their senator the legislation would be a “GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.” The post included Cotton’s cellphone number and urged residents to call him.
Trump also pointed to the House’s vote tally as evidence of support for the measure. He ended that portion of his appeal with an emphatic demand: “HAVE THE SENATE VOTE, NOW!”
The disclosure followed another public push on Friday, according to the Examiner. In that post, Trump said the legislation was “being held up by Senator Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, for reasons unknown.” He described changing clocks twice a year as “foolish, inconvenient and, in some cases, very costly.”
By Saturday, the president was also making the case for favoring afternoon daylight over morning sunshine. “It will be appreciated by all,” Trump wrote, according to the report. He argued that people do not want to spend time adjusting clocks and said “having sunshine in the afternoon is better than early in the morning!”
Cotton cites schoolchildren and winter mornings
Cotton’s response focused on the practical effects of permanent daylight saving time, rather than defending the inconvenience of changing clocks. In a Saturday statement following Trump’s post, the senator said he also dislikes the twice-yearly adjustment, the Examiner reported.
“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 said.
He tied his opposition directly to families in his home state. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first,” Cotton said, according to the report.
The Examiner described Cotton’s concern as extending to commuters as well as children. His argument centers on later winter sunrises and the potential risks for people who must leave home early, while Trump’s argument emphasizes avoiding clock adjustments and preserving afternoon sunshine.
Those competing priorities explain the central disagreement reflected in their statements: Both men object to changing clocks, but they differ over whether the proposed replacement would serve Americans better. Cotton’s comments supply a stated reason for his opposition, despite Trump’s earlier assertion that the senator was holding up the bill “for reasons unknown.”
No Senate vote on the calendar
The Sunshine Protection Act was introduced in January 2025, the Examiner reported. Since its bipartisan House passage, Trump has repeatedly called on the Senate to act. The House vote, however, has not produced a scheduled debate in the other chamber.
The dispute is part of a much longer legislative debate. According to the Examiner, nearly every state has considered legislation related to daylight saving time during the past decade, with federal law limiting states’ ability to make changes without congressional approval.
For families planning school mornings and workers arranging their commutes, the immediate question remains whether Congress will act. The schedule reported by the Examiner leaves Trump’s requested deadline unmet: The Senate adjourned Wednesday and is scheduled to return Nov. 9, after clocks fall back Nov. 1.
Source: washingtonexaminer.com
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