President Trump posted a sitting senator’s personal cell phone number on social media over a fight about clocks.
Quick Take
- The House passed the Sunshine Protection Act 308-117, but the bill remains stuck in the Senate.
- Trump publicly pressured Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas to drop his opposition and back permanent Daylight Saving Time.
- Cotton says permanent Daylight Saving Time would force kids to walk to school in the dark during winter.
- Congress tried permanent Daylight Saving Time twice before, in 1942 and 1974, and both times lawmakers reversed course.
A Twice-Yearly Ritual Reaches A Boiling Point
Americans have grumbled about changing their clocks for generations. Trump called the practice “ridiculous” and said it should stop for good. The House agreed, passing the Sunshine Protection Act by a wide bipartisan margin of 308 to 117. The bill would end the twice-a-year clock switch and let states choose permanent Daylight Saving Time instead of standard time.
Momentum in the House hasn’t carried into the Senate. The bill has sat without a scheduled vote for months, despite the president’s public push. That stall turned into a personal clash when Trump named one Republican senator as the holdout blocking the whole effort.
Trump Targets Cotton And Posts His Phone Number
Trump shared a letter from PGA Tour Commissioner Brian Rolapp praising the bill for giving golfers and fans more usable evening daylight. He then posted Senator Cotton’s personal cell phone number online, urging Arkansans to call him directly and demand he back the bill. The move turned a policy disagreement into a very public and personal confrontation between the president and a member of his own party.
Cotton did not back down. In a Senate floor speech, he said permanent Daylight Saving Time would make winter “a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans” and push sunrises to “an absurdly late hour”. He warned that for many Arkansans, the sun would not rise until after 8:00 or even 8:30 in the morning during the darkest winter months.
The School Bus Argument Carries Real Weight
Cotton’s central objection is simple: kids should not wait for the school bus in pitch darkness. Senator Roger Wicker backed him up, saying there are “real safety concerns, particularly in the more northern and rural states where children get on the school bus at very early hours”. That image of a dark bus stop is hard to argue against, even for supporters of the bill.
History gives Cotton’s side extra ammunition. Congress tried permanent Daylight Saving Time during World War Two and again in 1974 amid an energy crisis. Both experiments were repealed early after public backlash over dark winter mornings made the policy deeply unpopular. That track record suggests the country already ran this experiment and walked away from it twice.
US NEWS: President Donald Trump on Saturday pressured Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas to support a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, urging Americans to call what appeared to be the personal cellphone number of Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.…
— Olivia Smith (@_oliviasmith213) October 6, 2026
Supporters still have a reasonable case. Longer evening light could help local businesses, outdoor recreation, and family time after work or school. But reasonable arguments on both sides do not change the math in the Senate, where one determined senator can hold up a bill indefinitely without a scheduled floor vote. Until that changes, Americans will keep setting their clocks back and forth, twice a year, exactly as they always have.
Sources:
thehill.com, nbcnews.com, usatoday.com, pbs.org, akleg.gov
