President Donald Trump posted what appears to be Sen. Tom Cotton’s personal cell phone number on Truth Social this week, escalating a public feud with the Arkansas Republican over his refusal to let the “Sunshine Protection Act” come to a vote.
Trump, who called Cotton “a friend” in the post, blamed the senator for single-handedly blocking the bill from passing by unanimous consent last October. “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,” Trump wrote. “So, everyone in Arkansas, a State I love, and won 3 times, the last by by 34 points, tell Tom to, GET IT DONE!”
At the close of the post, Trump included the phone number and urged Arkansas voters to call Cotton directly. Fox News Digital dialed the number, which carries a Dardanelle, Arkansas, area code, but did not reach the senator.
The bill in question would make daylight saving time permanent nationwide, ending the twice-yearly clock change. The House passed its version in July by a bipartisan 308-117 vote, and the measure was referred to a Senate committee, where it has since stalled. The Senate is now out of session until November 3 and cannot act on the bill until after the midterm elections.
Trump has pushed the policy for months, arguing it would “decrease Robbery and Murder Rates, Reduce Car Accidents (especially those involving Pedestrians!), Lower Risk for Cardiac Issues, Stroke, and Seasonal Depression,” among other claimed benefits of extra evening daylight. The bill’s continued failure to reach a floor vote, despite bipartisan backing in the House, is another setback for a priority Trump has championed but has not managed to get signed into law.
Trump’s post came hours after Cotton rejected a unanimous consent request made last fall by Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., to move the bill forward. Cotton responded on X, standing by his objection.
“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changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter. Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”
This is not the first time Trump has made a fellow lawmaker’s personal phone number public. In 2015, while campaigning for president, he read out then-Sen. Lindsey Graham’s cell number at a South Carolina rally, after Graham had called him a “jackass” on CBS earlier that day.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
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