President Trump posted Sen. Tom Cotton’s personal cellphone number on Truth Social and urged Arkansans to call him after Cotton blocked a popular bill to make daylight saving time permanent.
The New York Post reported that Trump put out the Arkansas Republican’s number Saturday and told people to phone him directly over the stalled Sunshine Protection Act.
The measure would lock in permanent daylight saving time and end the twice-a-year clock change. The House already cleared it in July by a 308-117 vote. In the Senate, it still needs 60 votes to break a filibuster, and Trump named Cotton as the main holdout.
Trump framed the fight as simple common sense. He said almost everybody wants the bill, except one senator.
On Truth Social, Trump said Cotton was stopping a bill that should pass “overwhelmingly, in a Bipartisan fashion,” and noted that in the Senate “it only takes one.”
He pointed to his own record in the state and put the pressure on Cotton’s constituents.
"So, everyone in Arkansas, a State I love, and won 3 times, the last by 34 points, tell Tom to, GET IT DONE!"
Trump then gave out the number and told voters to use it.
Just the News reported the fuller post in which Trump called Cotton “a friend of mine” who was holding up “a very important Bill,” labeled it the Sunshine Protection Act, or the “We Don’t Want to Change Our Clocks Twice a Year Act”, and published the cellphone line as 479-453-0533.
"Call Tom on his cellphone at, 479-453-0533, and let him know. “The Sunshine Protection Act” was passed in the House by a Vote of 308 to 117. HAVE THE SENATE VOTE, NOW!"
Trump added that nobody wants to waste time turning clocks back twice a year, and that afternoon sunshine beats early-morning light. He also argued the clock ritual is costly for the country when workers have to reach “high and dangerous steeples” on churches and municipal buildings.
He had already singled Cotton out in a Friday broadside before releasing the number the next day. The move echoed an earlier episode: in 2015, during a heated GOP primary fight, Trump released the personal cellphone number of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Cotton did not fold. On Oct. 3, 2026, he answered on X and put Arkansas first.
"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changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter."
He tied the policy to school mornings and his state’s kids.
"Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first."
That history is not invented for the fight. The United States tried year-round permanent daylight saving time in the 1970s and later went back. Cotton’s argument is that Congress has locked it in before, watched winter sunrises arrive absurdly late, and repealed it when voters felt the pain.
The Washington Examiner likewise reported that Trump published Cotton’s number on Truth Social, called on people to contact him in support of the Sunshine Protection Act, and noted the bill had passed the House but remained stalled in the Senate because of Cotton’s opposition.
The legislative math is plain. A 308-117 House vote is not a squeaker. Trump called the Senate path easy to block and said the bill should move in bipartisan fashion. Cotton remains unmoved and is up for reelection on Nov. 3.
Voters who hate the spring-forward, fall-back drill hear Trump’s pitch: stop the ritual, keep the evening light, and quit the twice-a-year hassle. Parents who remember dark winter school runs hear Cotton’s warning: permanent daylight saving has been tried, hated, and undone.
One senator can slow a bill that sailed through the House. Trump decided the answer was public pressure, complete with a phone number and a direct line to Arkansas.
When a lopsided House bill sits in the Senate over one holdout, voters get a clear choice: keep changing the clocks, or make the holdout explain why.
