President Donald Trump publicly pressured Sen. Tom Cotton to support permanent daylight saving time and circulated what appeared to be the Arkansas Republican’s personal cellphone number, but Cotton refused to change his position as the House-passed Sunshine Protection Act remains stalled in the Senate.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump sharply escalated his campaign to end the nation’s twice-yearly clock changes Saturday, singling out Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and urging voters to pressure him into allowing the Senate to consider legislation establishing permanent daylight saving time.
Cotton responded within hours and made clear that Trump’s intervention had not changed his position.
“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changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” Cotton wrote.
“Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”
The confrontation centers on H.R. 139, the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025, which would end seasonal clock changes by making daylight saving time permanent in most of the country. The House approved the bill July 14 by a bipartisan 308-117 vote, with 193 Republicans, 114 Democrats and one independent voting in favor. The measure was received in the Senate the following day and referred to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, where no further legislative action has been recorded.
Trump has repeatedly pressed senators to take up the measure, but his dispute with Cotton became personal this weekend.
In a Saturday Truth Social post, Trump described Cotton as “a friend of mine” while accusing him of standing in the way of a bill that the president said should receive overwhelming bipartisan support. Trump then posted what appeared to be Cotton’s personal cellphone number and encouraged Arkansas residents to call him. Reuters and The Associated Press both reported that the number was presented as Cotton’s personal number; it is not reproduced here.
Trump’s full statement argued that Americans would benefit from additional afternoon daylight and portrayed the legislation as a straightforward political win for Republicans and Democrats.
“Everybody in Arkansas, Tom Cotton, a friend of mine, is holding up a very important Bill. It’s called, ‘The Sunshine Protection Act’ or, ‘We Don’t Want to Change Our Clocks Twice a Year Act.’
“For some reason, Tom is stopping the Bill and, in the Senate, it’s very easy to do, it only takes one! It should pass overwhelmingly, in a Bipartisan fashion. So, everyone in Arkansas, a State I love, and won 3 times, the last by by 34 points, tell Tom to, GET IT DONE!
“It will be appreciated by all. Nobody wants to spend their precious time running all over the place, turning Clocks back twice a year and, having sunshine in the afternoon is better than early in the morning!
“The PGA TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments. Likewise, regular Golfers, Tennis Players, Hunters and, perhaps most importantly, Farmers who want more Daylight to play or work.
“See letter from Brian Rolapp, CEO of the PGA TOUR below. 65% PLUS want more sun in the afternoon, Daylight Saving Time (The way it is now!), but 100% don’t want to change their Clocks twice a year.
“They want to, as they say, ‘LOCK THE CLOCK!’ Who doesn’t? It’s very expensive for our Nation where you have high and dangerous steeples to reach, like on churches and municipal buildings. Almost everybody wants ‘The Sunshine Protection Act’ to pass, except for Tom Cotton.
“To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself. Call Tom on his cellphone at [personal cellphone number omitted], 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! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Trump later responded directly to Cotton’s Arkansas-focused argument.
“If Tom Cotton were putting Arkansas first, he would give them an extra hour of daylight and, more importantly, they wouldn’t have to run all over their houses, farms, work places, and everywhere else, twice a year, having to change their Clocks, and often forgetting to do so,” Trump wrote.
Trump followed with another political appeal to the senator.
“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!” he wrote.
Cotton is not a rank-and-file senator. He serves as chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, making him the third-ranking member of Republican Senate leadership, and also chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
His opposition to permanent daylight saving time also predates Trump’s latest pressure campaign.
In an October 2025 Senate floor speech, Cotton argued that year-round daylight saving time would push winter sunrise past 8 a.m. in parts of Arkansas and considerably later in some northern and western communities. He said schoolchildren, construction workers, farmers and early-morning commuters would bear much of the cost of darker mornings.
Cotton also pointed to the federal government’s 1974 experiment with permanent daylight saving time.
Congress adopted year-round daylight saving during the energy crisis, initially intending it to last two years, but public support deteriorated after Americans experienced darker winter mornings. Congress reversed course later that year. The United States had also used year-round daylight saving time during World War II.
“If permanent Daylight Savings Time becomes the law of the land, it will again make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans,” Cotton said during his 2025 floor speech.
The senator has said he does not defend changing the clocks twice each year as an ideal system. His position is that permanent daylight saving time would create a worse tradeoff than the current seasonal arrangement, and he has cited medical organizations that favor permanent standard time instead.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and other medical groups have advocated permanent standard time because morning light is more closely aligned with human circadian rhythms.
Public opinion, however, shows broad dissatisfaction with the current clock-changing system.
An October 2025 AP-NORC poll found only 12% of U.S. adults favored continuing to change clocks twice a year, while 47% opposed the practice and 40% were neutral. When respondents were forced to choose between two permanent systems, 56% preferred permanent daylight saving time and about 42% favored permanent standard time.
Those findings support Trump’s broader contention that most Americans want to stop switching clocks, but they do not support his literal assertion that “100%” oppose changing clocks or establish that 65% favor permanent daylight saving time. The AP-NORC survey showed a majority preference for permanent daylight saving time when presented with a two-option choice, but also a substantial minority favoring permanent standard time.
The legislative procedure is also more complicated than Trump’s statement that “it only takes one.”
A single senator can object to a request for unanimous consent, which prevents legislation from being passed through that expedited procedure. Cotton did exactly that when supporters sought fast passage of the Sunshine Protection Act in October 2025. His objection does not, however, permanently prevent Senate leadership from bringing legislation to the floor through normal procedures and holding recorded votes.
At the moment, timing is a larger obstacle.
The Senate finished its legislative work this week and has no votes scheduled before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Daylight saving time is scheduled to end Nov. 1, meaning Americans in most states will turn clocks back one hour before senators return to Washington.
Cotton is also not the only Republican expressing opposition.
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told Reuters this week that he considered the permanent daylight saving proposal “dead as disco” and did not believe Senate Majority Leader John Thune would bring it to the floor. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, one of the measure’s leading supporters, said he remained confident Congress could eventually approve it.
If enacted in its current form, the Sunshine Protection Act would prevent most of the country from returning to standard time beginning in 2027. States that already do not observe daylight saving time, or states that act to adopt permanent standard time before the federal change takes effect, could remain outside the year-round daylight saving system.
The debate ultimately involves more than whether Americans want to continue changing clocks.
Permanent daylight saving time preserves additional evening light but means later winter sunrises. Permanent standard time provides earlier morning daylight but causes the sun to set earlier during the afternoon and produces earlier summer sunrises.
Trump has emphasized the first set of benefits, citing golfers, tennis players, hunters, farmers, families and businesses that could make use of additional afternoon light. He also shared a letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp supporting the legislation.
Cotton has concentrated on the opposite side of the equation, particularly children traveling to school before sunrise and workers beginning their days in darkness.
For now, neither Trump’s public pressure nor the House’s 308-117 vote has changed the Senate calendar. The Sunshine Protection Act remains before the Commerce Committee, the Senate is away until after the midterms, and the country is still scheduled to return to standard time on Nov. 1.
Original article
Comments