Urging Senate to stop clock change, Trump posts GOP senator's cell number - USA Today
President Donald Trump shared what he said is the personal cell phone number of Sen. Tom Cotton in an effort to put pressure on the Republican to support legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent.
"Call Tom on his cellphone," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Oct. 3, urging Arkansans to call their senator personally. After writing the lawmaker's alleged number, Trump continued, "let him know. 'The Sunshine Protection Act' was passed in the House by a Vote of 308 to 117. HAVE THE SENATE VOTE, NOW!"
It is unconfirmed if the phone number posted by Trump actually belongs to the senator. USA TODAY attempted to call and text the number, but messages were unsuccessfully delivered. The White House has not responded to request for comment.
Following Trump's post, Cotton defended his position on blocking the Sunshine Protection Act.
Cotton, who did not reference Trump nor say anything about the president releasing his cell phone number, wrote on X that, "no one likes changing the clock, me included," but that Congress had tried and repealed this previously "once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter."
This is also not the first time that Trump has given out the phone number of another senator.
On the 2015 campaign trail, Trump told a crowd in South Carolina to call their senator, the now-late Sen. Lindsey Graham and gave out his number. Graham, who was also running for president at that time, was then a fierce critic of Trump, who was making his first presidential bid.
"Give it a shot,” Trump said to the South Carolina crowd in 2015. “Your local politician, you know? He won't fix anything but at least he'll talk to you.” Graham tweeted a reply, "Probably getting a new phone. iPhone or Android?"
Trump has long called to end the clock change and have permanent daylight saving time. On Oct. 2, he posted a message urging Republican Senators to pass the "'No More Changing of Clocks Act,' officially known as The Sunshine Protection Act," saying that the biannual time change is "ridiculous" and "bad for crime."
"It’s being held up by Senator Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, for reasons unknown," Trump wrote on Oct. 2. "People are sick and tired of having to change their Clocks twice a year."
In July, the House of Representatives voted to allow states to enact year-round daylight saving time, but the legislation has yet to pass through the Senate. In Trump's new Oct. 3 post, he again attacked Cotton, saying that "for some reason, Tom is stopping the Bill" and attached a letter from the Professional Golfers Association to Trump that advocated for the legislation.
Cotton, who is in Senate leadership as the chairman of the Senate Republicans Conference, has opposed the move to install permanent daylight saving time. Cotton during an October 2025 Senate floor speech recalled when this was done in 1974 by Congress and "millions of Americans traveled to work and school in darkness." He said that permanent daylight saving would "again make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans" and "push winter sunrises to an absurdly late hour, depriving Americans of morning sunshine that’s essential for our safety and well-being."
When USA TODAY reached out to Cotton's office for comment on Trump's Oct. 2 post, reporters were referred back to that October 2025 speech.
In Cotton's Oct. 3 post, he said shared a similar sentiment to the 2025 speech, adding that he will "always put Arkansas first."
Contributing: Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA TODAY archives
