Donald Trump posted what he said was Senator Tom Cotton's mobile phone number on social media and urged Americans to ring it, because the Arkansas Republican opposes a bill to end the twice-yearly clock change.
The president told followers on Saturday 3 October 2026 to 'call Tom on his cellphone' over the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent.
Later that day, he told reporters that the switch back to standard time meant people could not play golf without 'having to run home after 14 holes'. Cotton has defended his position.
'Call Tom on His Cellphone'
The post singled out a senator Trump called a friend. 'Everybody in Arkansas, Tom Cotton, a friend of mine, is holding up a very important Bill,' Trump wrote on Truth Social, Reuters reported. 'Almost everybody wants The Sunshine Protection Act to pass, except for Tom Cotton.'
The number he posted carries an Arkansas area code but matches neither number listed on Cotton's government website, Mediaite reported. When Reuters called it, the line went straight to a voicemail that did not identify itself as Cotton's, and the number's ownership has not been independently confirmed. The journalist Aaron Parnas said the mailbox was already full.
It is not the first time Trump has done this. On 21 July 2015, during his first presidential campaign, he read out Senator Lindsey Graham's mobile number at an event in Bluffton, South Carolina, after Graham had called him a jackass, and dismissed the senator as an idiot.
Fourteen Holes and the PGA Tour
Trump laid out who he says wants the change. 'It discombobulates everybody,' he told reporters before heading to a campaign rally in Ohio. 'Professional sports and amateurs that would like to play tennis at night, would like to play golf a little bit without having to run home after 14 holes,' he said, adding that losing afternoon light made people late for meetings and dinner.
Golf featured prominently in his argument for the bill. Trump, who spends many weekends at his own golf clubs, shared a letter dated 1 October from PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp backing the legislation, writing that 'the PGA TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments'. He also said hunters and farmers would benefit from more afternoon daylight.
He then turned to crime. 'CRIMINALS DON'T LIKE WORKING IN THE LIGHT,' Trump wrote in a further post, before adding a third in which he said 'very distinguished people' had told him they disliked going home in the dark.
'Absurdly Late Sunrises'
Cotton did not respond to the phone number directly, but defended his position 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.
He added a local appeal. 'Arkansans don't want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I'll always put Arkansas first,' Cotton said.
The bill cleared the House but has stalled in the Senate. The House passed the Sunshine Protection Act on 14 July by 308 votes to 117, Mediaite reported. Supporters argue the clock change disrupts sleep and raises the risk of road accidents, while critics say later winter sunrises would leave children travelling to school and commuters heading to work in the dark.
The Senate has shown little appetite. It adjourned for the pre-election period without taking up the bill and is not expected to return before 3 November, and Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana described the measure as 'dead as disco', Reuters reported.
Clocks in most of the United States are scheduled to go back on 1 November, two days before the 3 November midterm elections, and Trump, who is campaigning for Republican control of Congress, is spending part of that campaign publicly pressuring one of his own party's senators.
