President Donald Trump on Saturday appealed to his followers on Truth Social to contact Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, including what appeared to be Cotton’s personal cell phone number.
In his post, Trump took aim at Cotton’s longstanding opposition to a bill to make daylight savings time permanent. The latest attempt to enact legislation to that end at the federal level, the Sunshine Protection Act, passed the House of Representatives in July. Resistance from some Senators, such as Cotton, has kept the bill from clearing the upper chamber.
Addressing “Everybody in Arkansas,” Trump calls Cotton “a friend” before mentioning the Sunshine Protection Act, which he also called the “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!” Trump wrote. “It should pass overwhelmingly, in a Bipartisan fashion. So, everyone in Arkansas, a State I love, and won 3 times, the last by [sic] 34 points, tell Tom to, GET IT DONE! It will be appreciated by all.”
Trump added that “having sunshine in the afternoon is better than early in the morning,” citing the PGA Tour as an example since golfers “need more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments.” Trump also attached a letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp to his post in which Rolapp expressed “the Tour’s strong support for the Sunshine Protection Act.”
“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,” Trump continued, then directing his followers to call Cotton “on his cellphone” at a number from Arkansas with a 479 area code. Outlets trying to reach the Senator at that number have reported no answer and a full voicemail box.
In response to Trump’s post, Cotton released a statement on X outlining his main point of disagreement with a daylight savings time bill:
“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changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” Cotton’s post reads. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”
Trump later posted a response to that response, again on Truth Social, saying, “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 goes on to call passing the bill “a very nice and easy WIN for the Republican Party.” The dispute comes at a time — extremely close to November’s midterm elections — when many in his own party have expressed their desire for the President to focus on supporting GOP candidates in competitive races and addressing issues important to swing voters.
“Who wouldn’t want more ‘SUN’ in the afternoon than in the morning?” Trump’s follow-up post reads. “It’s even been proven to be better in stopping CRIME, something of which I have done an Historic job because, CRIMINALS DON’T LIKE WORKING IN THE LIGHT. Not wanting to change your many Clocks, including for Church Steeples and Municipal Buildings is, however, a 100% issue. TAKE THE WIN TOM, JUST TAKE THE WIN! YOU NEED IT, AND SO DOES OUR BELOVED REPUBLICAN PARTY!”
Photo: White House Facebook
