President Trump publicly posted Sen. Tom Cotton’s personal cellphone number and urged Arkansas voters to pressure him after the senator blocked a popular bill to lock in permanent daylight saving time, a rare open Republican fight.
On Saturday morning, Trump went on Truth Social, shared Cotton’s number, and told the “Great People of Arkansas” to call their senator and demand action on the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025. The Hill reported that Trump framed the measure as a bipartisan win for the Senate and the country, then blamed Cotton for holding it up.
“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,” Trump wrote, adding, “Let him know.”
The House had already passed the bill in July with broad bipartisan support. In the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to advance most legislation, Trump cast Cotton as the main holdout and said it only takes one senator to stop a bill. The New York Post reported the House tally as 308-117 and noted Trump’s claim that Cotton was single-handedly blocking the measure.
Cotton chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He did not stay silent. Later Saturday he posted a brief statement that stood by his position, did not name the president, and did not address the cellphone post directly.
Cotton’s reply rested on history and school schedules. He said permanent daylight saving time has been tried before and undone once winter sunrises turned absurdly late.
"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changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter."
Just the News reported Cotton’s follow-on line: Arkansans do not want children walking to school in the pitch dark, and he will put Arkansas first.
"Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first."
That stance put him at odds with a president who has repeatedly pushed Congress to finish the job. Trump answered with more Truth Social posts Saturday afternoon. He rejected the idea that Cotton was putting the state first and pointed to his own electoral record there.
"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."
“That is really putting Arkansas FIRST, and I know, because, unlike Tom, I won that Great State, three times, and by almost 40 points!” Trump added. As of 4 p.m. Saturday, Cotton had not answered those later posts. The Hill reached out to Cotton and the White House for further comment.
Trump also argued the policy would cut crime. He said criminals dislike working in the light and claimed walking home after dark is more dangerous in high-crime blue states. In another Saturday afternoon post he described sitting with “a table full of very distinguished people” who told him they hate going home in darkness after the clocks change.
“It’s depressing! One of the gentleman stated that, ‘I just hate going home in darkness,’” Trump wrote. He called Cotton’s resistance ego-driven. Fox News reported Trump’s broader push: the bill should pass overwhelmingly in bipartisan fashion, and voters should tell Cotton to “GET IT DONE.”
The public pressure tactic, posting a sitting senator’s personal number and inviting a flood of calls, made the dispute impossible to ignore. The Washington Examiner noted that the Sunshine Protection Act cleared the House in July yet remains stalled in the Senate with Cotton opposing it.
Intra-party friction is not new in a midterm cycle. Trump has already flagged Texas and Michigan as trouble spots for Republicans, and open fights over routine legislation only add to the picture of internal strain voters can see.
The core dispute is simple. The House voted with a wide bipartisan margin to end the twice-yearly clock change and keep daylight saving time year-round. The president wants the Senate to finish the work. One Republican senator from a state Trump carried by large margins says past experiments failed and winter darkness would hit schoolchildren hardest.
Cotton’s history argument is on the record: Congress has locked in permanent daylight saving time before, then repealed it when late winter sunrises proved unpopular. Trump’s counter is also on the record: voters are tired of the scramble, an extra hour of evening light is a practical gain, and a single senator should not bottle up a bill the House already passed.
That kind of public collision fits a wider season of sharp political conflict. Democrats have floated fresh impeachment talk if they regain the House, including efforts to set a standard with another Trump impeachment push, while the president keeps pressing his own agenda items under midterm pressure.
None of that changes the immediate legislative math. Sixty Senate votes remain the threshold. Trump says Cotton is the obstacle. Cotton says he is defending Arkansas families from dark morning commutes to school. Both men have now said so in public, in their own words, on the same day.
Everyday costs still drive voter attention. Pump prices and energy moves remain live issues as the midterms approach, and Trump has moved to lock in a European diesel release aimed at relief at the pump. Clock changes are a smaller annoyance, yet they hit every household twice a year and leave a clear paper trail of past federal U-turns.
By posting the number and inviting calls, Trump turned a procedural hold into a voter-facing fight. Cotton answered with a short defense of state priorities and historical failure, then went quiet on the later posts. The White House and the senator’s office had not issued fuller replies by the time Saturday afternoon reporting closed.
Other recent dust-ups have been uglier and more personal. High-profile cultural shots at the president and first lady, including episodes where Chuck Lorre insulted Trump and Melania at a charity gala, show how quickly political fights spill into public spectacle. This one stayed inside the Republican lane and centered on a concrete bill.
The Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 now sits where many popular House bills stall: in a Senate that can be stopped by a single determined member. Trump used the tools he has, a direct channel to supporters and a willingness to name the holdout. Cotton used the tools he has, a public statement rooted in prior repeals and local school-day concerns.
Fairness fights remain a parallel track. Trump has also clashed with New York Attorney General Letitia James over process and equal treatment, arguing that Cornell fraternity suspects will not get a fair shake in her hands. Different arena, same theme: accountability and who sets the rules.
For now the clocks still change. The House has voted. The president has demanded action. One Arkansas senator has said no, on the record, and declined to revisit the point after the cellphone post and the follow-up barrage.
Americans did not ask for a twice-a-year ritual that confuses schedules, darkens evening errands, and keeps getting reversed after every “permanent” fix. A president forcing the Senate to face that record is doing the job voters hired him to do.
