By Bo Erickson
DAYTON, Ohio, Oct 3 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump shared online the supposed phone number of a Republican US senator in the first of multiple posts on Saturday in a row over making daylight saving time permanent.
Trump’s social media post urged people to call a phone number that he said belonged to Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who opposes a Trump-backed bill to end the time switch.
The dispute centers on the Sunshine Protection Act, which would end the twice-yearly practice of changing clocks by one hour. Trump says most Americans want more afternoon sunlight, but Cotton has argued the change would plunge early risers into darkness during winter months.
“Everybody in Arkansas, Tom Cotton, a friend of mine, is holding up a very important Bill,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Cotton did not directly respond to Trump’s statement, but posted on X:
“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changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” he wrote.
“Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”
When Reuters called the number Trump gave for Cotton, it went directly to a voicemail box that did not identify itself as belonging to the senator.
TRUMP TAKES POLITICAL ANGLE
Trump’s Saturday morning post was his second in as many days about Cotton’s opposition to the bill. After Cotton posted his statement, the president took to Truth Social again, framing the matter in purely political terms.
“Give the Republican Party a Senatorial WIN, for a change! … TAKE THE WIN TOM, JUST TAKE THE WIN! YOU NEED IT, AND SO DOES OUR BELOVED REPUBLICAN PARTY!” Trump posted on Saturday afternoon.
Cotton is running for reelection but his race is not considered competitive, as Trump received more than 64% of the Arkansas vote in the 2024 presidential election.
Most US states have observed the time switch since the 1960s. Clocks this year are slated to switch back to standard time on November 1.
The US House of Representatives passed the bill in July, but Cotton is not alone in the Senate. Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, this week called the bill “dead as disco” and said he did not think that Senate Majority Leader John Thune would bring the measure for a vote.
The offices of Cotton and Thune did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
SUPPORT FROM GOLFERS, FARMERS
Trump said golfers supported the change, sharing an October 1 letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp.
“The PGA TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments,” said Trump, who often spends weekends at his golf clubs around the country.
He also pointed to tennis players, hunters and farmers as proponents of year-round daylight saving time. In his Saturday afternoon post, the president added public safety as a justification.
“CRIMINALS DON’T LIKE WORKING IN THE LIGHT,” Trump wrote. He later posted a third time about the issue, writing that “very distinguished people” told him they dislike going home in the dark.
This is not the first time Trump has shared a senator’s phone number to make a point. During his first presidential campaign in 2015, Trump read Senator Lindsey Graham’s phone number at a rally and dismissed the South Carolina Republican as an “idiot.”
They later reconciled, with the late Graham becoming one of Trump’s highest-profile allies in Congress.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson, David Shepherdson and David Brunnstrom,; Editing by Sergio Non and Sanjeev Miglani)
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