President Donald Trump appeared to share the personal cell phone number of Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on Truth Social amid his push to pass a bill which would end daylight savings time.
Trump called out Cotton, who he describes as “a friend,” for stopping the “Sunshine Protection Act” from going to a vote 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 posted on Truth Social. “So, everyone in Arkansas, a State I love, and won 3 times, the last by 34 points, tell Tom to, GET IT DONE!”
TRUMP URGES SENATE TO PASS BILL MAKING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME PERMANENT AFTER OVERWHELMING HOUSE VOTE
Trump doubled down on his pressure campaign Saturday while speaking with reporters at the White House before boarding Marine One for a trip to Ohio, arguing that Americans are fed up with changing their clocks twice a year.
“We want to get away from this ridiculous way and custom of, every twice a year, turning your clocks back, turning your clocks forward, being late for dinner, being late for very important meetings,” Trump said. “It’s ridiculous.”
Trump said Americans want more daylight in the evening and argued the twice-yearly time change is costly and disruptive.
“People want to have light in the evening,” Trump said. “But really, what they want more than that, more than that by a lot, they don’t want to have to go around changing clocks.”
HOUSE PASSES DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME REFORM AS TRUMP SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR ENDING CLOCK CHANGE
At the end of his post, Trump prompted Arkansas voters to call Cotton’s number, which he included. Fox News Digital called the phone number associated with the Dardanelle, Arkansas, area code but did not reach Cotton.
The Truth Social post from Trump comes as the Senate is out of session until Nov. 3 and unable to vote on the bill until after the midterm elections. The House passed its version of the bill in July by 308–117, garnering bipartisan support. The House bill was referred to a Senate committee, but it hasn’t been touched.
Trump has been a leading advocate of ending the twice-yearly clock change, arguing that it would help “decrease Robbery and Murder Rates, Reduce Car Accidents (especially those involving Pedestrians!), Lower Risk for Cardiac Issues, Stroke, and Seasonal Depression,” among a laundry list of other benefits of having an extra hour of daylight in the evening.
But the bill’s failure to pass despite bipartisan support marks another setback for Trump, who has made the SAVE America Act a priority but has been unable to get it signed into law.
TRUMP FACES REPUBLICAN REBELLION OVER DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME AS SENATE BILL NEARS DEAD END
After Trump called out Cotton for rejecting a bipartisan unanimous consent made by Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., to move the Senate bill last Fall, the Arkansas senator doubled down on his support for daylight savings time.
“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 psoted on X. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has publicly disclosed a lawmaker’s cellphone number. In 2015, while campaigning for president, Trump shared the number of then-Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., at a rally in South Carolina. The move came after Graham called Trump a “jackass” on CBS that morning.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
